Homecoming Queen

Music is one of my favorite things in this world. I love listening to songs and singing along. There would be very few times one might walk into my house and not hear music. I was listening to Pandora the other day, and a song came on that I had not heard before. As I listened to the lyrics, my mind floated back to my high school days. I remembered so clearly the deep desire I had to be someone else. I would have done anything to change bodies with some of the girls that I went to school. They were beautiful, athletic, intelligent, and appeared to have everything. I would regularly imagine what life would be like to be them because I genuinely believed that these girls had a flawless existence, and being one of them would make my life complete. As I listened to the lyrics to "homecoming queen?" by Kelsea Ballerini, I was reminded of these daydreams and how inaccurate I was that I thought that anyone had a perfect life. Of course, I grew up and realized that while the exterior of these girls appeared to be perfect, that wasn't what was going on inside any of them. They were plagued with the same fears and worries that we all had.

We are a world obsessed with perfection. Fitness, beauty, and social media industries promote the pursuit of perfection. We are obsessed with perfection and destroy ourselves with destructive thoughts and messages. We spend much of our lives judging and comparing while setting goals like "I will be...when I..." You can fill in the blanks with whatever suits you, but the truth of the matter is that we are in pursuit of something we believe we don't have and only when we have it will we be happy, lovable, or enough.

Why do we do this to ourselves? We were not born believing that we were not enough and that others were better than us. Throughout our lives, we have developed these false belief systems that we create as truth. Everyone has their challenges! Some challenges are in plain sight, and some exist deep down inside. Either way, we are all works in progress, and we should be celebrating, not comparing and judging each other. I am committed to living a life where I am connected to others in a meaningful way, and we support each other in genuine ways. We are more similar than we may think. We spend so much of our days wearing armor to protect ourselves from each other when really we are all dying for connection. We need to drop our shields and show who we really are.

Messages to my daughters: I hope you choose to show up in your life. That you stand tall in who you are and what you have to offer the world. Hold your head up high and smile at the world that presents itself to you. You are fierce, resilient, and unstoppable. Don't listen to anyone who tells you differently, especially yourself should you meet your dark side in the deep of night. Keep taking one step at a time and immerse yourself in belief.