Be authentic. Spoiler alert: no one really has it ALL together.

I wish I could tell you that since coming to college I have had some pivotal moment where everything just fell into place and life became the perfect thing. That hasn’t happened yet, and it probably never will happen. (And that is okay, I promise)

But for the longest time I pretended that I had everything all together. I would post all these good things on social media, hiding away the pain and hurt and stress that I was suffering through. Frankly the pretending that I had my life together was more tiring than facing the fact that I didn’t have everything together. Picture this, it’s like putting a Band-Aid on a huge wound that’s gushing blood and hoping that no one will notice. That would be silly right? So why do we do that with our pain, hurt, heartache and more? Why do we pretend that putting a bandaid on it will make it go away, will heal it. Wounds require air to breath, just as our messiness and our problems require air. Talk about them, allow those who love you, to help you, to love you, to care for you.

What made it worse was that I would look around me and see all these people that seemed like they had it all together, and I felt bad about myself. I felt like I was walking around with huge clown shoes on, and everyone else was wearing normal expensive shoes. But let me let you in on a little secret, it wasn’t real. It isn’t real. We are all messy. And life is messy, and that is okay.

Messy doesn’t always equate to failure. Pretending that we and that life isn’t messy is exhausting. Eventually, the pretending to be 100% okay caught up to me, and my tiredness was coming out into my everyday life. I started neglecting the things of importance because the tiredness was setting in.

Just because you are messy, doesn’t mean you aren’t loved. You are stitched together by everything in your life, messiness and all. God didn’t just slap you together and say “oh whatever” He took the time to stitch every part of you into one. He picked out every piece of who you are very carefully. Messy, my friends, is beautiful. Life is beautiful because it is messy.

So don’t be scared to be authentic, or messy, or real. Be who you are, and embrace who God made you.