I was raised in a very strict, conservative, stereotypical Catholic setting. Teachers, parents, peers, and clergy were very successful in ingraining a very negative, self-destructive inner critic into my mind.
I'm a girl, my parents were divorced, I wasn't popular and I asked questions. Those traits caused more disfavor from the people around me. Those people also told me that God was not pleased with me either. I was extremely depressed and felt like I was suffocating. My main drive in life was to fit in because if they could accept me, then maybe I would be accepted by God.
And then I discovered the music and the message of the Beatles. I was fourteen. They were the first to give me the concept of unconditional love on a human and a spiritual level. They were the first to tell me that self-love is OK. These were revolutionary concepts in my experience.
I was completely changed and I finally stood up for myself. I was able to reject those around me who were seeking to put me down. I later got a tattoo of the Beatles as a permanent, tangible, symbolic reminder not to slip back into that old, destructive mindset.
