Hi Whyville. I haven't been on here in so long, but I got one of those emails saying you miss me, so how could I refuse?
High school is such a serious thing in the eyes of the adolescents. You want to be taken seriously because you think you're an adult. Newsflash: you're not. Truth be told, I've noticed my peers are lacking emotionally what many children have: self esteem. This is serious.
I cannot talk to any of my friends without them abusing their appearances. For one friend it is her hair, another one her weight, another her skin, and the list goes on and on. Obviously, no one is going to be one hundred percent happy with him or herself all of the time, but when minor imperfections start to affect the quality of your life it becomes a problem that needs to be fixed. Low self esteem causes depression, stress and self mutilation in teenagers across America and across the world.
So why do I care? Why am I telling you this? Because I have high self esteem. Okay, that sounds conceited, but it's just the way I am. I actually got it from my older brother. One day we went into Walmart and as we walked past a window he stopped and said, "Wow we are just beautiful people." For some reason, that stuck with me.
There comes a point on your life where in order to be happy with the world you live in, you will first have to learn to be happy with yourself. Look in the mirror. What do you see? A big nose, imperfect skin, a little too much fat, squinty eyes, frizzy hair, or crooked teeth? This is what you have to live with. The person who looks back at you in the mirror is the one person in life who will always be there for you. Don't turn against the one person who will never leave you. It's like hating the air you breathe.
My advice is to train your brain to think positive. If you have imperfections look at them and say "So what?" I bet for every imperfection there are at least two things you can think of that you like about yourself. Take a tube of lipstick or an expo marker and write down everything you don't like about yourself on your mirror. Look at it for a while, then erase it and write everything you do like. You should keep this list as a reminder.
You're beautiful, and don't you forget that.
