"I've Always Been Cute"

Words of wisdom from my then four-year-old niece.  How can you not love that bit of honesty?  (I figure her parents can work on her humility later on.)  Truthfully, though my roommate and I do joke about this comment still, there is a part of me that always hopes that she'll remember this and know that it's true.  I don't want her running around the playground at school declaring it or sharing her thoughts in junior high about it, necessarily, but I want her to know it within.

I don't think "cute" means good looking and fashionable and all the other labels the world may put on it - although the world, especially for women, would have us focus more on being "sexy" because cute just doesn't cut it.  I want her to be totally confident in her skin, and wish I could always be an example of how to do that.  See, here's the thing, the reiteration of what I've said before, I think we almost beat this out of ourselves as we grow up.  Watch the little ones in your life.  How often do they not think about what they are going to wear and whether it's wrong or right before getting dressed in the morning?  How often do they worry about what the person next to them is going to think as they dance down the aisle at Wal-mart?

When do we lose this and is it really an altogether good thing?  I've caught myself singing along to whatever is playing in the store and immediately looking around to make sure no one is listening.  Heck, I've even caught myself dancing in the aisles - and REALLY hope no one was watching.  When do we come to the decision that what we are and who we are needs to be more?  I think that's part of the reason I loved this sign so much when I found it last year (ignore the cord running behind it, please).  Really, who else can we be?  We can look at people around us and find the characteristics that we love and want to emulate, but it's still going to be as us.   Yes, we get to decide what that's going to look like.

We get to choose to be an individual in the crowd.  I think that as I've become more comfortable in my own skin, I've been more able to not care if I don't exactly fit in with those around me.  I have my own interpretation of things, my own look, my own style.  I can't worry about whether or not it's the right interpretation, the right look, or the right style without driving myself absolutely bonkers!  I don't have the time or energy! 

I love to people watch and see the different looks and wonder about what's kind of behind it.  I like to believe there's a confidence and an embracement (is that even remotely a word) of who they are, but who knows.  He or she may have had the biggest fight with the mirror in the world that morning, but the fact that they are out in the world means there was some kind of victory there.

So, until the time that we are always confident in our own skin and always accepting of what's in the mirror, isn't the truth in this picture a great reminder to us all.  And, if that's not enough, take the wisdom of a four-year-old, and remember "you've always been cute!"