Shine Brighter

Every day. Every hour. Every class. All the time we are surrounded by people. By peers, by teachers, by family, by friends. Every second of those moments thoughts swirl around in our brains never to cease. 

I wish I could look like her. Why can’t I have my life together like them? If only I could be as smart as him. It’s not fair. I need to try harder. When I just get what they have, I’ll be happy. I’m such a disappointment. Everyone loves them. Do they hate me? Are they talking about me? 

It’s impossible to make it stop. We will never be good enough for ourselves and we will always find something we could change. But, what would happen if we could see ourselves the way others do? Instead of constantly comparing ourselves to other people, maybe we need to take a step back and look for the good within ourselves. As we all have our differences, that means we all have different strengths, and along with that, weaknesses. When did we decide that someone else's strengths cloud our own?

Let yourself shine! Take advantage of your strengths and use them to do good, and when you find a weakness within yourself use it as an opportunity to make you stronger. When you take advantage of your resources and try your best to overcome them, there is no shame in failing. You fall, you get back up, and you try again. There is no way you get back up when you are hyper-focused on what the people around you can do or think of you. 

We are all finding ourselves and our strengths. Try to figure out what we want to do with our lives, yes, but what rule book says we have to have it all figured out?  Someone else might have every minute of their future planned but take your time. Find what you love. What a shame it would be to get stuck doing something you hate because you felt pressured to keep up with the crowd. You should be keeping up with yourself! You know your limits and what it takes for you to succeed so why not follow that path? Do not waste your precious time comparing yourself to others when you could be shining brighter than you ever thought!