It's You That Matters

     Have you ever had the desire to have something about you changed? It doesn't necessarily have to make you into an entirely different person, but a few things about yourself that you wished you had or didn't have. How you got this feeling could come from anything. Some people feel like they want to be different if they're being bullied, for example. It could be any reason, but sometimes, you just have that desire to be able to do something that you can't do, or to not have a certain aspect of yourself. Examples of this include things like height or weight. As for me, I'm going to be complete honest and say that I don't feel like I want to change anything about myself, so I figured I'd take on this topic from a different perspective: Why is it important for people to like who they are? 

     The answer to this is quite simple: You're not you if you change who you are. If you had the ability to, say, make yourself taller because everyone is picking on you because you're short, would you do it? I certainly wouldn't, because I'm proud of who I am. It just wouldn't feel normal if you changed something about yourself, because you're so used to how you used to feel. Whatever the reason is that you want to change yourself, whether it be bullying, if you desire to have a certain skill, or if you just don't like how you look, you are changing yourself into a different person. Here, I'm going to go into detail about why you should be proud of who you are and how to conquer these three downsides of why you would want to change yourself. 

     If you're being bullied, remember something important; There's nothing wrong with you. In most cases, It's the bully that has certain issues. It could be a case of low self-esteem, self-conscious issues, or maybe the bully is being picked on at home him/herself. Whatever the case, it's the bully that needs to change, not you. The bully could be a victim his/herself, so you go through the exact same thing that they could be going through. If a bully is ever picking on you because of how you look, just remember that they lash out because the same thing is happening to them. 

     What if you desire a certain skill or ability that you're unable to acquire? Such as playing a certain sport well, or to succeed in a certain subject. These desires are, most of the time, quite difficult to accomplish for one reason; You have to work for them. For example, say you want to join the baseball team at school, but you lack a good pitch. You can't be all upset and think to yourself "boy, I wish I was good at baseball" without putting some elbow grease into it. When you have a desire like that, your mind is often clouded with things like "I'll never be good at baseball" and other negative comments. Most people over look the one, simple fact that you have to work hard to achieve that skill or ability. If people overlook that, It can make them feel bad about themselves, which can lead to you wishing you were different. If you work hard for something that you want, the feeling of accomplishment will be amazing. Don't focus on how you could be better than how you are now. Instead, like who you are and to celebrate what you're good at.

     Of course, there's just some people out there who don't like how they look, which is quite a shame. Say you're looking through a friend's photo album on Facebook, and you see one that you're not particularly fond of. You think to yourself, "Is that really what I look like?" and you start to wonder why you look bad in that picture. So why do some people hate seeing photos of themselves?It's simply because the human eye isn't used to seeing the face that it's attached to. The only other time you ever see your face is in a mirror. These people are thinking about how they appear to others, so when they see themselves in a mirror, they think nothing of it because that they're the only one there. Photos are often accessible by other people, so the person gets all self-conscious about how they look. It's completely normal for you to act that way. Don't judge how you look from a single photo. Thinking you're ugly or unattractive will just make it worse. And if you see a photo that you don't like, there's an easy solution: Take another one.

     It's always important to like yourself just the way you are. Don't rely on other people to tell you if you look good or bad, you have the proper judgement to tell yourself "man, I look good today." If you have a desire to accomplish something, then work for it! And if you don't like how you look in a picture, take another one. If you don't appreciate who you are, then you can't appreciate your life. You may feel like there are some things that you can improve on, but it's perfectly fine to stay exactly how you are. Who you are.