When I wake up in the morning, I am only me for the first few minutes that I have. After that, however, I sometimes think that I am someone else. Being a wife and a mother often makes me think that I fall into those categories and not one that makes me an individual. It is too easy to be caught up in the role of someone's wife or someone's mother, and forget what it is like just to be a person. There are times when I act happy when I am not, sad about something that does not matter that much to me, or other ways because I am trying to please my husband or my children, and at those times I am not really me. I lose my individuality when I do things this way, but yet I feel compelled to do these things because others expect it of me, or expect that I will respond in a certain way. .

             But when I wake up in the morning, I am only me for those first minutes, and those minutes are very important. The reason those minutes mean so much is that there are no demands on me at that time and I can really be me - or be whoever I want to be. I don't have to worry about being a mother, or being a wife, or being any of those things. I can only exist as exactly who I am and want to be and need to be for that time, and without those precious waking-up minutes every morning, I fear that I would lose myself in the demands of being a wife and a mother. I feel very proud to be a wife and mother, and it is something that I enjoy very much, but there are times when I have to be something else, and have to be more than that, and without those few minutes when I wake up in the morning, there would be little chance of having that break from the rest of life; that chance to only feel what I feel and think what I think without the concern that others may object. When I have had a chance to be only me for a few quiet minutes, I am rejuvenated and ready to be whoever my family needs me to be that day.