If I get one more ticket, bye bye drivers liscense. that would be tragic.
But don't worry, apparently I'm a pretty decent speech writer and giver(?). So i guess that could always work out. And, according to Tesa Jones, I "should be a writer"....not like I've been planning on it for all eternity....
Tah Dah
You can read it if you want.
My name is Emily Henson. I can’t sing, I can’t dance, and I can feel a giant zit beginning to form right in between my eyes. I don’t get straight A’s and haven’t won any major awards recently. My name is Emily Henson, and despite all this, I love myself. Now I know I’m not perfect, I have flaws and somedays I just want to curl up in a ball and hide from the world. But it would be an injustice to me, and the people I love, if I let those small imperfections hold me back.
Seven out of ten girls believe that they flat out aren’t good enough, in looks, grades, or relationships. They don’t feel that they measure up to the world’s standards. 75% of those girls have reported that they engage in harmful activities in order to cope. 75% develop an eating disorder, bully others, smoke, drink, or even begin to physically harm themselves. Age 9. An age we associate with freedom. Playing outside. Learning cursive. Recess. Age 9. The age where more than half of all girls have attempted a diet. Age 9.
Is this the kind of world that we want to live in? Do we want a world that tells us from age 9 that we’re never good enough? Sure, that one surgery helps but if you just went on this diet, imagine how beautiful you could really be. In all truth, beauty has nothing to do with the the color of our eyes or the measurement of our waist lines. Beauty is developed when you finally give yourself permission to look in the mirror and smile.
Now boys. You’re thinking this in no way applies to you. You may not care what your hair looks like or if your outfit matches completely. No, self esteem isn’t an issue for males. They’re tough. They don’t need reassurance. They are born with confidence. Well I’m here to tell you that that is a lie. I won’t pretend to be an expert on the male mind, but I do know that every time he runs a little faster, every time he gets the girl, and every time you don’t live up to the expectations of being a man, your self confidence drops.
In order to change this seemingly unchangeable trend for our children, for our friends, and for ourselves, we have to start now. Sven Goran Eriksson once said, “To wish you were someone else is to waste the person you are.” Let’s stop wasting ourselves. We all have a purpose in this world. We all have the opportunity to be great. And yet we all seem to so easily forget that.
We see the characters on the screen, their perfect lives. Their perfect bodies and perfect lovers. We have been letting fiction fool us into thinking that a perfect life is flawless. A real perfect life only requires one thing: knowing you deserve to live it. All this negativity and judgement gets piled up in our minds until finally, we feel nothing but insecurity and incompetence. The world will try and tell us that we can’t do it, that we’re not good enough. And we have the power to stand up and say to them that yes we are, and yes we can.
Wake up in the morning and smile. Smile at yourself in the mirror, smile at the people you come in contact with, and smile just because you can. It’s astonishing the impact that one smile can have on the people around us, and on our own happiness.
I know smiling can’t fix absolutely everything. We doubt ourselves everyday. We see our flaws, and we automatically assume that that is all everyone else sees. We’re wrong. We have the ability to ignore our flaws, but even greater is our ability to transform them into our strengths.
Strengths. What makes us firm, what gives us our power. We all have them, we just need to explore ourselves in order to discover them. And when you do, don’t be afraid to use them. Show them off. Don’t let fear keep you from shining, from making a difference. As Marrianne Williamson once said, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.”
My name is Emily Henson, I am powerful beyond measure, and I deserve to live my life to the fullest. I don’t have time to list all your names, all your faults, and all your strengths. So I deliver this challenge to you today. Don’t let the people of this world tell us who we are to be, what we are to look like, and how we are to act. Don’t ever forget how much you mean to the people who surround you, and how much we don’t give a crap about the zit on your forehead. And maybe one day you will realize that you deserve to be just as happy as the rest of the world seems to be.
Seven out of ten girls believe that they flat out aren’t good enough, in looks, grades, or relationships. They don’t feel that they measure up to the world’s standards. 75% of those girls have reported that they engage in harmful activities in order to cope. 75% develop an eating disorder, bully others, smoke, drink, or even begin to physically harm themselves. Age 9. An age we associate with freedom. Playing outside. Learning cursive. Recess. Age 9. The age where more than half of all girls have attempted a diet. Age 9.
Is this the kind of world that we want to live in? Do we want a world that tells us from age 9 that we’re never good enough? Sure, that one surgery helps but if you just went on this diet, imagine how beautiful you could really be. In all truth, beauty has nothing to do with the the color of our eyes or the measurement of our waist lines. Beauty is developed when you finally give yourself permission to look in the mirror and smile.
Now boys. You’re thinking this in no way applies to you. You may not care what your hair looks like or if your outfit matches completely. No, self esteem isn’t an issue for males. They’re tough. They don’t need reassurance. They are born with confidence. Well I’m here to tell you that that is a lie. I won’t pretend to be an expert on the male mind, but I do know that every time he runs a little faster, every time he gets the girl, and every time you don’t live up to the expectations of being a man, your self confidence drops.
In order to change this seemingly unchangeable trend for our children, for our friends, and for ourselves, we have to start now. Sven Goran Eriksson once said, “To wish you were someone else is to waste the person you are.” Let’s stop wasting ourselves. We all have a purpose in this world. We all have the opportunity to be great. And yet we all seem to so easily forget that.
We see the characters on the screen, their perfect lives. Their perfect bodies and perfect lovers. We have been letting fiction fool us into thinking that a perfect life is flawless. A real perfect life only requires one thing: knowing you deserve to live it. All this negativity and judgement gets piled up in our minds until finally, we feel nothing but insecurity and incompetence. The world will try and tell us that we can’t do it, that we’re not good enough. And we have the power to stand up and say to them that yes we are, and yes we can.
Wake up in the morning and smile. Smile at yourself in the mirror, smile at the people you come in contact with, and smile just because you can. It’s astonishing the impact that one smile can have on the people around us, and on our own happiness.
I know smiling can’t fix absolutely everything. We doubt ourselves everyday. We see our flaws, and we automatically assume that that is all everyone else sees. We’re wrong. We have the ability to ignore our flaws, but even greater is our ability to transform them into our strengths.
Strengths. What makes us firm, what gives us our power. We all have them, we just need to explore ourselves in order to discover them. And when you do, don’t be afraid to use them. Show them off. Don’t let fear keep you from shining, from making a difference. As Marrianne Williamson once said, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.”
My name is Emily Henson, I am powerful beyond measure, and I deserve to live my life to the fullest. I don’t have time to list all your names, all your faults, and all your strengths. So I deliver this challenge to you today. Don’t let the people of this world tell us who we are to be, what we are to look like, and how we are to act. Don’t ever forget how much you mean to the people who surround you, and how much we don’t give a crap about the zit on your forehead. And maybe one day you will realize that you deserve to be just as happy as the rest of the world seems to be.
Does anyone even put pop tarts in the toaster anymore?
....this post is obviously about Nathan Gallagher
I love toasted Pop Tarts.
ReplyDeleteAnd quite frankly, I'm sad when I have to choke them down at school because I'm starving(and that's the only thing that gives me enough sustenance for a dollar)without even toasting them.
P.S. You are a fantastic writer. You know, by decent standards. ;)
P.P.S. Are all the Nathan references directed towards your anonymous commenter? If not, please call me as I have missed A TON.
P.P.S. No, this is not the longest comment in the world but it very well could be.
I just wanted to say I love you and miss you M. :)