Dear Me,
I know it’s hard not to compare yourself to others. I know it’s hard to see past those small imperfections that get larger in the mirror as the day goes on or as you get older. But forget all that! Forget that your hair is getting unruly or that adult acne is just something you have. Forget that you feel naked without makeup but hate putting it on and forget that you hate yourself naked.
Learn to love what nobody else can love about you. Love the way your shadow looks in the sunlight. Love how you dream in the color gray. Love yourself with the same hatred you have for early mornings, avocados, or spilled sugar. Love the fact that you're still learning to love yourself.
Don't make it about your body. Love that you can see the colors in the leaves on the trees as they change or love how it smells right after it rains. Appreciate the confidence you have when you're alone and hang onto that. Don't feel that the words or silent judgements of others matter, because they too need some work on themselves. Appreciate silence and appreciate your own laughter, because joy is experienced by you uniquely. Clap for yourself because you know every fiber of your being. You know the weight your bones can carry, and you know the pressure your chest has felt, and you've conquered it all. You don't need to climb a mountain, or save a life, or hear the praises of others to know that you are worth the love and compassion and beauty that the world around you has to give.
Above all else never forget that you are a daughter of God. That he designed you. Every part of you. Every inch of you, from head to toe— your hair, your grin, your ears, your laughter, all the things you love about yourself and all the things you despise about yourself — he adores it all because he made you exactly how he wanted you to be, perfect.
Love,
Me
