A word from our sponsor: self-acceptance

Now, I just had this major breakthrough thing where I realized that no one needs to like who I am, only I do. Anyone else is a bonus. But I was looking around for the past two and a half weeks at my school and finding out, wow. I wonder how many of these people are actually true to themselves. You can tell that I don't care, but I can also tell how much that these other people do. For instance, I was voicing my opinions about the feathers-in-the-hair trend going on, asking why you would want a fake piece of down clipped into your hair. Why pay money for it? I mean, honestly. If you like it, fine. Go ahead and do it. Just don't expect me to say that I love it. Well, I know this girl (no names) and she doesn't need to follow all these trends. Underneath this exterior of wanting to be like everyone else is this amazing girl with a voice and an opinion and a great future, but she's suffocating herself with all the things everyone else is. She told me she was getting a feather and I plainly asked, "Why?" "Because everyone else has one and I want one too."

If she wouldn't have said the first part of her answer, I would have been fine. But she did, and I practically exploded in her face. Granted, I was not in a good mood that day, so I probably went a little extreme, but really. "Everyone else has one" is not an acceptable answer. Being a trend follower makes you nothing but unoriginal. You can't come up with your own look. It's sad, really, to see all these clones walking around my school. I know plenty of the "benders" as I like to call them, but I know even more of the "clones" and even a few "Barbies". It's really making me lose faith in humanity's creativity.

But those rule-breakers, most that I know at least, are usually the most broken themselves. I know some who talk to me about suicide and I try to make them see that who they are and being so helps people, usually using myself as an example. If I didn't have other benders with me, I would probably fall apart and succumb to the world of feathers, Hollister, and :gulp: mainstream music. But I didn't because the benders never left me and I will never leave them. I just wish they knew just how amazing they were.

Even if you aren't a clone of those people that you see online or on the television, it doesn't mean you aren't beautiful. Everyone has something beautiful about them. I can find something in everyone, so you can find something in yourself, because you were meant for something. I have no idea what I believe in at the moment, but I know that everyone has a purpose. You will be happy some time, some day. I can promise you. Just love yourself, because you're absolutely worth it. You always have been. You are beautiful. Stay that way.

Keep it ugly.

♥