Ms Molony

I’m not this girl. Not the girl who looks in the mirror and dislikes herself. Not the girl who is hyper-critical of herself. Not the girl who constantly fusses over how she looks. I love to feel like I look good, sure I do. But I don’t normally let my physical appearance cloud my self esteem.

Its two days until I turn 28. I sit with self depreciating thoughts circling in my mind like vultures. The melancholy which always accompanies my birthday is fueling this fire.

Lookimg back on the past year – I made drastic life changes. I endured hardship, heartache and strain like never before, but I bloomed out of this desert of strife by loving myself more than I ever have before. More than I have ever loved anybody else. I am good enough and I love myself enough to get through these bad days, to push past the doubt and the pessimism and embrace all of the things which make me, me.

Society teaches us that this is a selfish thing, to love yourself more than others. We get boxed into stereotypes and shunted into silently comparing ourselves to our peers, Facebook stalking them and supposing their level of happiness from their Instagram feed or their recent wall posts.

This horrifies me. My phone automatically applies a “beauty” filter when I use the front facing camera. This filter airbrushes faces and pimples and freckles and scars, all of the things which make each of us unique. You may have brown hair and blue eyes, and sure we could even share personality similarities, but you didn’t fall and crack your chin or scar your eyebrow like I did, you didn’t grow into yourself and overcome shyness through the awkward adolescent avenue I did.

But you are lovely. You are strong and incredible and you are beautiful. You are loved. You are loved because you love yourself. Choose to do that today, choose to stop the crippling comparisons you impose on yourself, choose to realise that comparison is the thief of joy, and choose to believe that you deserve all the joy in the world.