Right to Choose Change

Little by little, we change.  The choices we make and the stuff life throws us, all work toward making those changes.  The fact is, we will never be who we were.  The person of yesterday is gone.  We are who we are *today*.  Sometimes others don't like it much.  Sometimes we don't even like it ourselves.  But, this is where we are and who we are, in this moment.  The changes we have made for ourselves doesn't always sit well with our family and friends.  Every single person has an opinion.  But ya know what?  They have not and cannot walk in our shoes.
Sometimes we make changes because we absolutely have to.  It could be for financial reasons, health reasons, etc.  Hopefully the changes we choose to make are done so with the best of intentions.  Hopefully these changes are made because we also have our best interest at heart.  People are going to judge.  That just seems to be the nature of the beast.  It is far too easy for others to look into our choices and condemn us for them.  Something as simple as a haircut can sometimes be enough fuel to get all the negativity from others going.
It is time to face the fact that we are adults who have the right to make choices for ourselves.  Good, bad or indifferent in the eyes of others.  I am the person living inside of my skin, not anyone else.  I am the person who needs to provide for myself in the best ways that I know how and can actually do.  I wonder sometimes if those who judge our choices do so because they somehow think that they should have been consulted first.  I am not talking about a spouse or partner but of those outside of that relationship.
It is okay to choose change.  It is okay if no one understands.  We have the freedom to make choices for ourselves.  So often the choices we make are with the intention to make our lives better in some way.  Rarely in my experience has the choices been to purposely harm someone else