The Crown Diaries - Scared

Wow, what a ride in this crown. My wonderful husband gave me the coolest gift for our anniversary, and he is taking me to Canada for an overnight 'us' time. 

Will I wear the crown? Will I be walking around with the crown on my head? The small, little scared girl inside me said, 'nah, you can just say it's your anniversary'. But that's not why I am wearing the crown. That's not why I have the strength of all my veteran sisters, it's to wear the crown. 

So, here we are, ready to gout on Friday night. Kinda clean up well. I have a little story to tell about that night. All night I wore the crown, there were people glancing my way. I caught a few people staring. But what ,mattered the most, was when I saw people smile. I started focusing on that, and saw more people smiling at me. I felt comfortable to make eye contact with complete strangers and smile back.

Sometime through the evening, I forgot I was even wearing the crown. People smiled, and I smiled back. There were only a few comments, people didn't really ask me why I was wearing a crown. Hmmmm. Why do I think about what other people think? Why am I even bothered? I realize it is a scary world out there and I just want to fit in. I want to be not noticed. I don't want to stand out, but I want to be a pert of the world. I want to be included, yet I feel like I'm always on the outside looking in.

The best part of the night, was when we were headed back to out room and three couples got on the elevator with us. It was apparent that they all knew each other. They walk on the elevator and express how beautiful my crown is.
 Is it my birthday?
No.
But I belong to a woman's veteran group and I am the veteran of the month. I get to wear the crown.

I got high five's all around!!

This was a long elevator ride, because we were on the 32nd floor and they were the 33rd floor. Before we got off he elevator though, I did say it was our anniversary. They all said we had better get back to our room, it's late!!

I had the confidence to wear the crown all night, people looked and stared, but it was OK. I am OK.