Megan Cress
What happens when you give everything to survival, love, and motherhood-only to realize you’ve lost yourself along the way?Life. Marriage. Kids. A world that looks perfect from the outside. But behind closed doors, the reality is far more complicated. Through heartbreak, betrayal, addiction, and the weight of expectations, this is the raw and honest story of a woman who gave her all-to everyone, to the version of life she thought she was supposed to have-until she realized she had nothing left for herself.But long before marriage and motherhood, before the heartbreak and loss, there was a childhood built on dysfunction. Raised by a single mother who was more focused on chasing love than raising a daughter, I learned early on how to fend for myself. Affection was scarce, stability was nonexistent, and I grew up in a home where emotions were ignored rather than nurtured. I watched as my mother repeated the same toxic cycles, and I swore I would never end up like her. I believed that if I worked hard enough, loved hard enough, and built the kind of life I never had, I could outrun the past.But no one tells you that survival mode doesn’t just disappear when you escape your childhood. No one tells you that old wounds follow you, that the patterns you grew up with seep into your choices, your relationships, your sense of self. I built a life, a family, a home-but somewhere in the process, I lost myself.This book is a journey through a dysfunctional childhood, fumbling through adolescence, love and loss, through healing and setbacks, through the messy reality of rebuilding after everything falls apart. It’s about learning to let go of what no longer serves you, finding strength in the moments of brokenness, and redefining what it means to be a wife, a mother, and-most importantly-a woman in her own right.With heartfelt honesty, humor, and resilience, Life... Actually. is for anyone who has ever felt lost in the life they built, anyone who has struggled to move forward, and anyone who is still figuring out how to put themselves first without feeling guilty for it.Because healing isn’t a straight line. Sometimes, it’s two steps forward, one step back. But as long as you keep going, you’re still moving. And that’s what matters.
