Go ahead, you know you thought it too. "A pleasant surprise is in store for you...in bed." *insert preteen level hysterics*. I'm grateful for the immature in bed jokes that come along with fortune cookies, and for having a mom who will still laugh hysterically at them with me.
Day twenty two and I am grateful for the growing comfort in being myself that seems to be coming with, dare I say it, age and maturity. Tonight as I was walking the indoor track at the gym, I was unashamedly having a lip sync dance party with myself, blissfully in my own world until I realized I'd put smiles on the faces of some of the people playing basketball on the court below the track. There was a time I would have been mortified, but today their smiles brought me a dose of genuine happiness, as I realized that happy energy can, in fact, be contagious.
Being authentically yourself in a world that seems pretty determined to squash any form of uniqueness is no easy feat, but it turns out the wiser humans in my life are right. There is a part of it that comes with getting older, as you realize that the opinions of others really hold no weight over you, and that you can, in fact, have a lip sync dance party as you walk a track, and your world will not come crashing down around you. There's freedom in the decision to live life for yourself, and to not be ruled by the potential of embarrassment. Something I am grateful to have realized that I am stepping into.
I hope that everyone in life finds a way to live authentically as themselves. The world needs the unique beauty of all of us, not a bunch of carbon copies. So go out and be fearlessly yourself. Laugh at the fortune cookie jokes, do the lip sync dance party, whatever it is that makes you happy. And remember, like attracts like, and life is showing me that the more open I am about my weirdness, the more my fellow weirdos come out to play.
May you find the space and the strength to be authentically yourself.
- Dominique
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