We live our lives in the shadows.

Shadows cast by our circumstances, our loved ones, our jobs, our religion. But how do you find your way out of the shadows and into the light when you feel like your life is being eclipsed by all the world''s expectations, challenges, and obligations?

Since childhood, Melinda Hardin has felt the weight of her identities press down on her: the proverbial hero child, the model Christian, the perfect wife. After failing to meet impossible standards and hitting the bottom of the bottle one too many times, she realized she had the power to step out from the darkness and back into her authentic self. Easier said than done; as with all good things, it was and still is a hard-fought battle, one that evolves and fluctuates as her world changes.

Melinda''s bare-faced memoir recounts with rawness, hilarity, and insight a life path paved with both the greatest joys and the greatest personal failures-through addiction, rediscovering God, and finding fresh courage to shine with purpose.