I Choose Today to Drop the Labels Episode 6 – The I Choose Today Series
Have you ever carried a label that someone else gave you? One that stuck to your heart and became part of how you saw yourself? Maybe it was a word spoken in anger, or a judgment passed down that made its way into your identity. Sometimes, the labels aren’t even names people call us—they’re words we use to summarize our own pain. “Lazy.” “Too emotional.” “Not enough.” I’ve carried some of those labels, too. And for a long time, one of the most painful was the word “stupid.” That label was spoken over me when I was young, and it shaped how I walked into school, how I viewed challenges, and how I saw myself in the world. I was placed in a “remedial” group because I didn’t learn the way others did, and the system didn’t know what to do with that. Instead of getting the help I needed, I was just passed along—and the label followed me from grade to grade. By the time I reached high school, I wasn’t reading above a fifth-grade level. I didn’t understand grammar or composition. And even though something deep inside me whispered, “That’s not who you are,” I still wondered if
