Best Self Magazine

Becoming Myself: Making Peace with a Traumatic Childhood

Becoming Myself: Making Peace with a Traumatic Childhood, by Roberta Kuriloff. Photograph of young girl looking back by Caroline Hernandez.
Photograph by Caroline Hernandez

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Having suffered a series of traumatizing childhood events, the author strives to reframe her life by looking back

We cannot control all that happens to us, but we can choose how we react to those struggles. I’m inspired to share with others how we can look at life, the glass half-empty or half-full, and find peace in the efforts to become ourselves. I didn’t understand this when I was a young girl living in an orphanage, but there was something in me that pushed me to survive by believing in the positive, riding into the sunrise, not the sunset. That is my story.

[Below is an excerpt from Roberta’s memoir, , about the construction and union of both an inner and outer life. Reproduced with permission

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from Best Self Magazine

Best Self Magazine4 min read
Buried Alive: How Disconnecting with my Mother Finally Freed Me
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes — I stopped picking up the phone. Stopped calling her back when she slurred ugly messages on my answering machine. Blocked her email. And, when Facebook became a thing a few years later, I blocked her there, too. Th
Best Self Magazine4 min read
Finding Your Passion…Again
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes — This past month I entered into my seventh decade and realized that some of the passions of my youth might be shifting or taking another form. I’m a little burnt out with writing and would love to try something new
Best Self Magazine4 min read
The Fundamental Principles of Allowance and How It Can Serve You
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes — Allowance is a tool which can quite literally change all aspects of life including relationships, finances, career and more. Although allowance is a powerful and pragmatic way of improving one’s life, it is not so

Related Books & Audiobooks