Just be yourself
- Aisling
- Jan 27, 2017
- 2 min read
I am really passionate about empowering women, teaching them that it's okay to be yourself even if your true self is not what is considered in society to be the 'norm'. I am especially passionate about passing this message to younger girls who may be feeling a little vulnerable and just want to 'fit in'.
Let me first dispel this myth that you can or should 'fit in'. There is no such thing as being normal or cool. It simply doesn't exist. Each one of you is a unique one of a kind, never to be repeated, awesome human being. This is a fact. Normal and cool are just words. Words that in the grand scheme of things mean nothing. YOU mean something, more than something, YOU mean everything.
I am in my 30's now and one of the things I actually love about getting older is the clarity I'm getting about what is really important in life. When I was a teenager I really just wanted to be seen as being cool and popular. I cared more about what other people thought of me than what I thought of myself or my own happiness. I recounted a story to my partner recently when we're passing a sports store about how I got my parents to buy me a Manchester United jersey when I was about 15. Why he asked "sure you don't even like soccer". To fit in was my answer. I also remember being about 12 years old and pretending to be upset when the band Take That broke up, the girls in my class were inconsolable, I didn't care but I pretended I did. Why? So I would fit in.
In my 20s I did what a lot of my peers did. I lived for the weekends, spent all my money on booze and generally made a lot of questionable decisions. I have a handful of awesome memories from those times and while for the most part I was enjoying myself I knew deep down I wasn't being my authentic self. But I wanted to fit in.
In my mid 20s I met an awesome group of women who changed my life forever. They taught me it was okay to be real authentic self, they shared in my true passion of searching for meaning in life and making your days here really count for something. They provided me with a safe and encouraging environment to be honest about what really mattered to me, they were and still are my soul sisters.
If I could accomplish one thing in my life it would be to provide others with the encouragement and support that these women gave to me. To convince people that it is not just safe but a wonderful thing to just be comfortable and confident with yourself and who you are.
if I could jump in a delorean* and go back in time to my teenage self and tell her she is awesome just the way she is, right now and always. No improvements necessary.
*For all you younger readers a delorean is a car which was used as a time machine in the awesome movie Back to the Future. If you are so young that you haven't seen it you must remedy this immediately.
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