Mods, delete this if not allowed.

I am feeling kind of pathetic tonight and I have been beating myself up for not being the person I want to be. The person I want to be is not constantly anxious, she isn't scared to speak her mind, she doesn't stutter, she has self confidence that radiates off of her, and most of all - she's independent. I haven't had to do a lot of self reflection or introspection to know that I am the complete opposite of all of these traits, since they are very much glaringly obvious to myself, but tonight it was especially hard hitting to hear a comment from one of my family members that he thinks "I need someone to take care of me" and I can't describe what a hit that was because that's the opposite of what I want, I want to be able to take care of myself and I hate that I'm projecting that kind of codependent image... or even worse, that I may even be like that. It's worth noting that I have autism so these obstacles may be more challenging for me to overcome but I refuse to let my autism be the thing that stops me from trying to pursue an independent life and portraying all of those admirable I have listed off in the beginning.

I figured that this would be a good place to ask because I know there's a lot of women here who are the kind of people I would look up to and admire, and unlike other subreddits, I would be getting only responses by other women which is what I am looking for. So, I think my main questions would be... how was your journey into becoming a HVW, and would you have any advice to share on how you achieved that, did you have any challenges to face along the way? How did you overcome them?

I hope to spark up an interesting discussion that will be beneficial for all of us, especially for young women like myself in similar positions. ✨✨