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Sometimes the act of being brazen has nothing to do with moving mountains or chasing dreams. Sometimes it’s the quiet act of accepting where you are and being okay with it.
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Can we talk about ideal body standards over the course of history? Since the dawn of time, body trends have come and gone. For the longest time women’s bodies were idealized for their fertility, and therefore having lots of curves (**cough** rolls **cough**) was desired. And then came the invention of the corset, which kept curves, but thinned the waist. Then it was popular to have a boyish figure... and then to have long legs... and then to be extremely skinny and flat chested... and now it’s to have a backside that you can rest a glass of champagne on.... MORAL OF THE STORY? YOU BE YOU. Trends come and go, but you are a perfect, just as you are. Stop trying to keep with the trends, because it’s exhausting, and before you know it what was “in” will soon be “out”. Take care of yourself. Love yourself. Because you are a work of art, baby.
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I recently started taking anxiety medication for the first time in my life and I already feel like a whole new person. So this is me, coming out of my mental cave after almost a year. Do I look like I got the shit beat out of me? Yes. But do I feel empowered, beautiful, and ready to take on the world again? Also yes. Melissa, version 2.0 is comin’ at ya.
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I have a hard time being casual about anything, and I’m okay with that.
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My name is Melissa and I’m big into the lifelong pursuit of being comfortable in your own skin. Can I get an amen?
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One of my 2019 New Year’s resolutions was to like the color brown. For a girl who’s entire wardrobe is black and white, this was a huge deal (I mean, in a first-world problem kind of way 😜). But my friends, for the first time in my entire life, I actually followed through on a resolution, and I’m OBSESSED. BREAK OUT THE BUBBLY FOR SETTING OBTAINABLE GOALS! HA!
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“For what is a man, what has he got If not himself, then he has naught To say the things he truly feels And not the words of one who kneels The record shows I took the blows... And did it my way”. Thanks Paul Anka for writing one of the best songs ever.
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I was talking to my therapist last week about how I’m stuck on this idea of “getting my life back” after my car accident. Like I’m spending all of this energy trying to go back to a time in my life that that never happened. Back to the smiling girl in this photo. And while this girl was very happy, she didn’t know the blessings that would come with the tragedy six months after this photo was taken. She would become a person that felt broken, but it would give her an opportunity to ask for help, which she never knew how to do before. She would feel lost and alone, and it would give an opportunity for her village to love on her in ways she never knew. It would make her face her deepest fears, and she would survive them. As much as we don’t want to be in those dark places, sometimes it’s those places that we need to be to become better people. There is no going back to who are in the past, because that person doesn’t exist anymore. And my loves, that’s a GOOD thing.