Wowzers, it’s been since February that I’ve blogged. That’s utterly insane! Life has been a whirlwind since then. I saw my dentist complaints were on the last blog, and I’ve had 2 root canals since then and my teeth are alllll better now! So full force on fast forward to where I am not. I finished my school year out strong even though testing drove me crazy. I could not believe it was time for summer. I visited Chicago and Nashville this summer, I had an amazing summer for the most part even though there were some friendship woes. Then it was August in a flash, and it was time for school to start up again. So here I am in September with one year under my belt and working on my second year as a school counselor at a school that I love.
Truly, work is not work for me. I have a passion for what I do and even if I get kicked, screamed at, or scratched in a day, I know that I’m where I’m meant to be at. Patience is one thing that I have lots of especially with my kiddos. There are downfalls to the job, but seriously, I would not pick another career. One thing that working in this area has made me especially keen to is magnifying my yearning for helping others. Sometimes that tends to get the best of me, but one thing that I’ve learned is about myself and gaining a greater sense of self-worth.
You may hear campaigns recently out to “love yourself.” These campaigns are not only good for the younger generation, they are good for everyone to understand. As we grow up, we are constantly told things that we can and cannot do or what we are and what we are not. We may be fat, skinny, short, tall, medium-sized or whatever, but in all honesty we are all just people and DNA that we have been dealt. Not every fat person is lazy, not every skinny person has it easy looking for clothes or making food choices. Self worth is one of those things that no one can give, but they can sure take it away if you let them.
Yes, I’m overweight, do I care? Yes. Do I have to change it immediately to love myself? No. The thing about loving yourself and knowing that you’re worth it is respecting yourself to know what you deserve. No one deserves to feel belittled, and no one deserves to feel like it is their fault when it is not. That is one thing that makes me sad to see is when people let other people, especially their significant other belittle them and make them feel worthless. I have vowed to myself that it is much better to stay single than it is to ever let someone do that to me. It is not worth the heart ache.
It’s funny to me because even though I’m 25 years old my brain feels like it’s 30 at times and 20 at others. I have gained so much self awareness over the years and insight into how relationships work with friends, family, and lovers. I can’t imagine having kids at my age right now, even though many people have kids by the time they are 25. On the other hand I have a good thing going here. I am employed and for the most part successful. There’s always room for improvement but it’s not something that I’m willing to lose sleep over.
To get back from my tangent on that, though, self-worth is something that we all need to foster throughout our lives. To love ourselves allows ourselves to love others. There is a difference between loving yourself and being narcissistic as well. Too much self-love can be harmful in itself, but most of the time those people cannot see it even if their relationships suffer.
I found a quote the other day, “The best revenge is to have enough self-worth not to seek one.” So much can be taken from this quote. I love it, and I try my best to look at this to reflect on how I’ve reacted to items in the past. Do I have enough self-worth to do that? Do you? What can I do to help myself to keep growing in this journey of self-worth? Take some time to reflect on your own ideas of self-worth and continue to find ways to do things for yourself and find yourself throughout it all. Don’t allow others to put a price on who you are or control what you do or how you see yourself. The best critic of yourself is you, not anyone else. You are worth it, no matter what anyone says, and you deserve to be happy.
As a poster in my office says, “You are someone of value, don’t let anyone tell you differently.” 🙂