Life is pretty amazing.
I am here on the Earth with fantastic, talented, incredibly kindhearted people. I know people who are ambitious dreamers, who honor their past and embrace their future. These are people who work to one day change the world. They say they will be the first female president, an advocate for social change or the first human on Mars.
We all talk about our dreams like they are grandiose plans that need to come true to be successful. But when did it become not enough to just exist? The truth is, the people I look up to most are not famous. They are ordinary people, who touched me in extraordinary ways. They are my CIT camp counselors, my third grade teacher, my best friend.
Sometimes I have to remind myself that I am enough just as I am. Quotes, sayings and mantras keep me going. This list will be different for everyone, but for me, these are the sayings that have touched my soul and reminded me to cherish being alive.
1. "You are allowed to be both a Masterpiece and a work in progress simultaneously." -- Sophia Bush
2. "You were given this life because you are strong enough to live it." -- Unknown
3. "You have to learn to get up from the table when love is no longer being served." -- Nina Simone
4."No matter the wreckage there will be someone to find you beautiful (despite the cruddy metal)." -- Sarah Kay
5. "For whatever we lose (a you or a me) it's always ourselves we find in the sea." -- E.E. Cummings
6. "But don't you ever apologize for the way your eyes refuse to stop shining. Your voice is small, but don't ever stop singing." -- Sarah Kay
7. "You are imperfect and wired for struggle, but you are worthy of love and belonging." -- Brene Brown
8. "I'm thankful for my struggle because without it, I wouldn't have stumbled across my strength." -- Alex Elle
9. "We touch other people's lives simply by existing." -- J.K. Rowlin
10. "How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard." -- Winnie the Pooh
11. "I don't know a perfect person. I only know flawed people who are still worth loving." -- John Green
12. "And if you can't see anything beautiful about yourself, get a better mirror, look a little closer, stare a little longer because there is something inside of you that made you keep trying despite everyone who told you to quit." -- Shane Koyczan
13. "Repeat after me: I am not a problem to be solved. Repeat after me: I am worthy. I am worthy. I am neither the mistake nor the punishment." -- Sierra Demulder
14. "Around here, we don't look backwards for very long...we keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things because we're curious...and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths." -- Walt Disney
15. "You may encounter many defeats but you must not be defeated." -- Maya Angelou
16. "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us." -- Marianne Williamson
17. "I will love myself despite the ease with which I lean toward the opposite." -- Shane Koyczan
18. "For what it's worth, it's never too late to be whoever you want to be. I hope you live a life you're proud of, and if you find that you're not, I hope you have the courage to start over." -- F. Scott Fitzgerald
19. "Sometimes you find yourself in the middle of nowhere, and sometimes in the middle of nowhere you find yourself" -- Anonymous
20. "But our lives will only ever always continue to be a balancing act that has less to do with pain, and more to do with beauty" -- Shane Koyczan
