When you're an outcast, all you can think about is, why don't I fit in? What's wrong with me? Then the insecurities come in. Am I too tall? Am I too short? Am I too fat or too thin? Well I have some amazing news for you. Take society's social norms and shove it where the sun don't shine.
Let's get one thing straight. You are the best version of yourself in whatever skin you're comfortable in regardless of what people try to tell you. Whether you love wearing blue jeans and comfy sweaters or your favorite hoodie and sweatpants learning to love yourself is one of the most important lessons to learn in life. It teaches you to be confident with yourself and see your own self worth when other people can't.
In high school it was probably the hardest thing for me to accept the fact that I was an outcast. I loved being bubbly and happy all the time but at one point that wasn't considered to be a social norm. Then one day I just didn't care anymore. At the end of my junior year I sealed this special moment by cutting my hair, short. If you knew me I had really long hair in high school and cherished it. One day I just decided that I was ready to embrace it all and so I adopted short hair and loved every minute of it. To this day my hair is still short and I don't regret the day I decided to cut my hair. It was that simple little thing that helped me embrace who I was. To me, being who I was and breaking societal norms made me the happiest. I wasn't afraid to embrace my love for old novels, old music, or my little country life. I liked wearing my favorite grey boots with my jeans or dresses. Fun fact: I actually wore cowgirl boots to my sophomore homecoming and did not once regret it. I wasn't going to dress to impress other people. I wanted to dress in what I was comfortable in and what I loved.
That's another hard concept to grasp, how society views people based on their appearance. Girls are typically supposed to be tall and fit into a size zero but that isn't in the least bit realistic. No matter what body size you have the most beautiful thing is what comes from inside. Inner beauty shines so much brighter than outer beauty despite what people say. When you have a beautiful inside it literally glows making your outer beauty just was bright. Learning about my inner beauty made me accept my outer beauty in more ways than once. Instead of thinking my eyes were a weird shade of green, I saw them as a unique shade of green that changed dependent on the weather or my mood. If it were sunny, warm, and I was happy they would turn the brightest shade of green but when it was cold and cloudy they would turn a green that seemed a bit grey. From then on I learned to love the color of my eyes.
By senior year I was more than comfortable with my outgoing, giggly, free spirited self. If someone tried to make a pessimistic comment I would hear it for second and then go about my day. Sure it wasn't all that easy at first but once I learned that I didn't need that negativity in my life it made things easier. I liked being my own person, I liked the fact that I didn't follow social norms I liked the fact that I was my own person and no one was going to change that.
Above all, being an outcast allowed me to see just how amazing it is to realize who you are and not how society perceives you to be. You find beauty in anything and everything, even yourself.
