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A few years ago, I found out I couldn\u2019t have kids. It was brutal\u2014made even worse by the fact that my fianc\u00e9 cheated on me with my best friend right around the same time. Since then, I\u2019ve focused on healing, rebuilding, and yes, treating myself sometimes. I work hard, live alone, and over the years I\u2019ve slowly collected a few designer dresses that make me feel confident and beautiful again.<\/p>\n
My sister-in-law, Dana, never approved. At every family dinner she\u2019d make comments like, \u201cGet your priorities straight\u2014dresses won\u2019t keep you warm when you\u2019re old and alone,\u201d or, \u201cIf I didn\u2019t care about starting a family, I\u2019d buy stupid stuff too.\u201d I always smiled, but it cut deeper than I ever admitted.<\/p>\n
Last week, she texted me out of nowhere. She had a college reunion coming up and wanted to borrow one of my fancy dresses to look impressive. I said no at first. She immediately called me selfish. So I smiled and replied, \u201cSure. I\u2019ll bring one by tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n
She looked smug when she opened the door, like she\u2019d finally put me back in my place.<\/p>\n
But the dress I brought wasn\u2019t one I loved.<\/p>\n
It was the very first designer dress I ever bought\u2014the one from the darkest year of my life. The one that no longer fit. I handed it to her and said, sweetly, \u201cYou\u2019re right. Dresses don\u2019t really matter. This one didn\u2019t matter to me anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
She tried it on. It didn\u2019t zip. Not even close.<\/p>\n
Her smile vanished.<\/p>\n
I shrugged and said, \u201cI guess bodies change. Priorities too.\u201d Then I wished her luck at the reunion and walked out.<\/p>\n
That night, I went home, poured a glass of wine, and hung my favorite dress back in the closet\u2014exactly where it belonged.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A few years ago, I found out I couldn\u2019t have kids. It was brutal\u2014made even worse by the fact that my fianc\u00e9 cheated on me with my best friend right … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/readupdatemystory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/readupdatemystory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/readupdatemystory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readupdatemystory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readupdatemystory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1594"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/readupdatemystory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1596,"href":"https:\/\/readupdatemystory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1594\/revisions\/1596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/readupdatemystory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readupdatemystory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readupdatemystory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}