Who Says?

     
   It's been a while since we have chatted, I apologize, but a girl gets busy. It was spring break! Though I'm envious of those of you  whom jet setted around the world, I am confident I had one of the best spring breaks ever. I learned alot. It is definently something to "blog about."  
    I got the chance to spend the week with my Aunt, and see all my baby cousins. I just can't say enough how much we learn from kids. I was even reading a book today, (The Book Thief) and even they mentioned the wisdom of children! I knew I didn't come up with that on my own.  
   So many times in this past week, I have told my cousins they were beautiful.  Almost every time, they smile and say "I know." Now, don't call them conceited, because they give compliments just as much as they take them. Perhaps, they just know something that we, as teens, seem to have forgotten.
   They understand the power of just getting to be you. The power and amazement that comes with being who you are, and loving it. No one else in the world is exactly you, you're truly one of a kind - a rarity. In culture, we tend to find rare things exciting, fantastic- beautiful.  
   I know, not everyone is going to say you're beautiful. Thank the Lord that simple words don't stop something from being true, right? If it were, think of all the messes we'd be in. For all the times you have said, "Get Lost" or "I hate you" or "You're Ugly." If we had the power to actually make those things a reality, the world would be in a dire place.
   Fortunately, we cannot. No amount of wishing away what we consider "ugly", "fat", "not worth anything"; it doesn't make us any less beautiful. Now, I know that alot of times I look in the mirror and call myself fat, ugly, or compare myself to the beauty of my sister, a friend, some celebrity. It's crazy though, because I bet half of those people are in the mirror doing the same thing, and the other half,well, they have it figured out.  
    I am uniquely me. I may resemble my father and my mother, but no one else in the whole entire world is me. They don't possess the same skills, the same humor, nada. I am the only Olivia Grace in the entire universe who looks and thinks like me. That is what makes you so beautiful- what makes you "you". 
     Not your outward beauty so much as what is inside- that's what shines through. Sure, you may not be a Selena Gomez or Katherine Heigl, but when someone gets to know you, that's when people start to see you in a new light. They see who you really are. That version of you- that's beautiful. 
   I know I have blogged about similar ideas, but it's because I struggle with this, just as much as anyone else. Knowing the truth, and acting on it are totally different. So, from now on, I vow to see myself for who I really am. Beautiful. Perfect - even when I screw up. You were made the way you were for a reason.  Allow yourself to be beautiful.  

   

You've Got Every Right to a Beautiful Life,

Olive :)