I was just sitting here looking through my Instagram feed, and I stepped back and actually thought about the things I was looking at. I thought that life was about accepting and loving and growing, and it seems as though being accepted nowadays means getting lots of likes on your Instagram selfie…Sorry but that’s not what being accepted should mean, and it makes my heart sad.

People will sit there and refresh their latest selfie for hours just hoping that they will get more likes and yada, yada, yada - I’m guilty of it for sure, we all are, but when I actually started thinking about it, I stepped back and looked at the bigger picture. It’s ridiculous that some people only feel accepted through social media. You are always good enough and however you look and whatever you do, it’s good enough because that’s you. If you want to post a picture of something you saw on the ground, do it because it’s probably cool and should be seen! Who cares if you get 10 likes or 200 likes, you wanted to share something and it made you feel good. It makes me sad that some girls feel that they need to only post pictures of them working out everyday and caking their entire face in makeup and only buying clothes that the Kardashians wear in order to feel accepted and wanted in today’s world. You need to remind yourself that if getting more than a hundred likes on your pictures is where your happiness and acceptance comes from, you need to get out and do more, talk to more people, something, because there’s so much more to actual acceptance than a pretty face on your phone screen. Yes, working out, being healthy and looking good makes anyone feel good and it’s so important, but in the end, your mental health is more important than anything and whatever makes your soul happy and keeps you going is good enough. If that’s eating two cheeseburgers then eat two cheeseburgers! I just feel like a lot of us mute our minds out and instead of doing what we want, we do what we know will be accepted, and that’s freakin’ crazy isn’t it? I’m so guilty of all of this, don’t get me wrong, but stepping back and looking at the reality of it is so important because we all are smart enough to know what’s going on.

I think one of the things that I have made sure to keep true to me is self-love and knowing I’m good enough and acceptance of anything and anyone that comes into my life. I've grown up with a special needs sister who was never really accepted the way the majority of people were, and it was always hard for people to look at her as a "normal" person. I was taught to accept not only myself, but everyone around me and that it doesn't matter at all what you look like or act like, we all just need to be accepted. That’s what this world is about, and we can’t forget that! I realized these past semesters that within my photography I take portraits of people, but I cover their faces. I've always done this and I've never known why, I've just done it. I then started to take a deeper look and as I grew more knowledge, I realized why I do the things I do in my art. I don't care what you look like, I don't care what your face looks like, I just want to show a pretty piece of art that doesn't necessarily entail a pretty face, and I want to show that the photo isn't pretty because of the person, it's pretty because of the aesthetics, the details and the little things we should all be paying attention to; rather than the gorgeous 100 pound model that we see in the media everyday.

I just think it's important for all of us to constantly remind ourselves that we are good enough no matter what and that we accept everyone for who they are, just like we were taught when we were kids, because in the end, that's what makes the world go round, right?