Thursday, April 5, 2012

you are beautiful. you are enough.

Middle school was rough on me.  I blame it on two facts.  One: I was hideously awkward until about my junior year of high school.  And Two: Sarcastic wittiness may land you a man when you are pushing 25, but mean girls just don't appreciate a girl that's clever.

Case in point.  I was legitimately kicked out of my circle of friends.  In one of those notebooks no less.  It was handed to me right before English class, in perhaps 8th grade, with strict instructions to read it during the 45 minute block.  With all their eyes on me, I had to read the cruel message inside, and blink away tears.

The list goes on and on.  I didn't have a boyfriend, let alone my first kiss, until I was just about old enough to drive.  To most people, those two life milestones seem to go hand in hand.  But to the lonely girl that watches all her friends zoom past her, prancing around town with their romances-it's a hard pill to swallow.

So, I did what any other American girl can do.  I tried to make myself into something that I wasn't in hopes that it would bring me the things that I so desperately wanted.  I slathered on the make-up, I bought way too many clothes, I dumbed myself down, and I lost myself in a sea of trying to be.

It wasn't until many years later, after many bad relationships, that I realized that I was enough.  For the first time in my life, I focused on me.  I focused on friends that truly card about me.  I focused on what I liked.  And I stopped wearing so much make-up.  And wouldn't you know it, but just about at that same time, I met the boy.  And I tell all my single friends that it couldn't have happened any other way.  Love just can't find you until you can love yourself.

When I read this article, it just made my heart stop.  I was the lost and lonely girl and I needed someone to tell me these ten things.  I can only hope that pinterest is still around by the time my child is old enough to appreciate this wisdom: You are beautiful.  You are Enough.

xoxox,
j

No comments:

Post a Comment