1. You’re the only one of you there is. How crazy is that?! Of the 6.7 billion people on earth, from America to China to the islands in the South Pacific, you are the only one of you. Yes, there are lookie-likies (I, apparently, look like someone everyone went to college with), and there are twins, and there are people with similar thoughts and mannerisms. But you are the only you. In fact, one of my favorite things to hear is when someone says of another, “Oh my God, that is so you.”You know what that says to me? That they’re being uniquely, loudly and proudly authentic. Do the same thing: Say what you think, wear what you want, laugh your own way and dance like you mean it. Then glow when you’re told you’re being so you.
2. You may not know what will happen tomorrow, but that’s the fun of it! It would take too much of the gripping dramatic tension out of your life—the one that makes you work harder, love stronger, and kick table legs when things get hard—if you knew the ending. Knowing the end ruins books, it ruins movies, and it would ruin the fun of your life. Embrace the unknown! Swim where you can’t see the bottom and surf if you don’t know if you can. Sometimes it might not go, uh, swimmingly. But sometimes what happens tomorrow will blow your mind.
3. People like you. They really do. Sometimes the people you wish would like you don’t. And sometimes the people you wish wouldn’t like you follow you around and give you creepy eyes like Jack Torrance in The Shining. But in the center of that spectrum are the people who smile when they see you and appreciate what you bring to their lives. So the next time you get caught up pining toward the cafeteria table of people who don’t want you to sit with them, turn a-freaking-round and look at all the people waving you over with warm smiles. They like you ’cause you’re awesome. And if you don’t have a romantic partner who realizes that yet, have faith. You will.
Big love,