Ann Allison Akin, MEd, LPC

07/31/2026

05/22/2026

I tried for a long time to live the “right” way.
To fit in wherever I thought I was supposed to belong.
To be the version of me that made everyone else comfortable.
And honestly… it’s exhausting.
Everyone seems to have an opinion about who I should be.
How I should act.
What choices I should make with my life.
But here’s the truth they forget.
Most of them don’t know me at all.
They don’t know the roads I’ve walked alone.
They don’t know the battles I fought just to survive.
They don’t know the scars that quietly tell my story.
So why would I let their voices shape my life?
I’m done marching to the rhythm of people who have never taken a single step in my shoes.
I don’t owe the world anything except honesty with myself.
And for far too long I’ve been abandoning my own needs just to keep everyone else happy.
That ends now.
It’s time I start living for me.
Time I start chasing the things that actually make my soul feel alive.
Forget the “shoulds.”
Forget the rules they tried to wrap around me.
Forget the voices saying I can’t or shouldn’t.
I can do anything I set my mind to.
And that’s exactly what I’m going to do.
I’m flipping the script.
Turning the page.
Changing to a direction that belongs to me alone.
Maybe I don’t know exactly where the road leads.
But wherever it goes, it will be my choice.
My life.
My path.
My story.
I’m done asking for permission.
Done searching for approval that was never mine to chase in the first place.
All it ever gave me was unhappiness.
And I deserve more than that.
I deserve a life that feels honest.
A life that feels like freedom.
So I’m finally chasing the dreams I buried years ago.
The desires I once pushed aside trying to please everyone else.
Will I stumble?
Of course I will.
Will I fail sometimes?
Absolutely.
But at least I’ll be doing it on my own terms.
No more regrets.
No more apologies for being who I am.
This is my story.
And I’m writing the next chapter exactly the way I choose.
My scars are part of the ink.
My broken pieces are part of the strength that built me.
Every jagged edge is proof that I survived what tried to destroy me.
The people who truly love me see all of that.
The light and the darkness.
The strength and the softness.
And they still choose to hold my hand through it all.
Everyone else can keep their opinions.
Because they were never the authors of my life anyway.
But if you can accept me exactly as I am…
If you can love me without trying to change the fire inside me…
Then take my hand.
Let’s go live a life worth remembering.
Rain or shine.
Rise or fall.
I’ll walk this road the way I should have all along.
My way.
Because some stars were never meant to dim themselves just to fit in the sky.
Some stars were meant to burn brightly.
And that’s exactly what I am.
My own kind of star.
|ravenwolf

04/03/2026

This is very interesting.

02/22/2026

01/19/2026

Today we celebrate and reflect on the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with these words from APA President Dr. Wendi Williams.