as an avid people-pleaser, i always joke that it took me until i was 18 or 19 to realize that i was a person. and there’s a lot of truth to the joke–it really did take me a long time to understand that as much effort as i put into keeping everybody in my life happy, i was forgetting that i’m allowed to be happy and pursue joy for myself as well. i love people so much, and it took me 18 years to realize that i was part of “people” and worth loving.

in the past year or so, i’ve started realizing how much of a blessing it is to be a person. (i know, this sounds really groundbreaking. i can tell you’re already all inspired. stay with me here!)

think about it, though.  you’re born a blank canvas full of genes and potential and otherwise completely untouched by your environment. from that point forward, you’re being built–through childhood, a lot of people do a lot of influencing in your life, but at a certain point you take over the canvas and start creating yourself. you start to understand your own personality, your quirks, your passions, your style. and eventually, you stop trying to change all your quirks and little idiosyncrasies and learn to really appreciate the fact that you’re alive, you have a life to live, and you can’t be replaced.

i’ve realized that i will always prefer comfortable over cute (and also that i know i can rock sweatpants!). i am overly compassionate, i get extremely excited and enthusiastic (and sometimes about really small things), but that i am an introvert.  i thrive on small communities and deep friendships, but get insanely uncomfortable around large groups of people. i’ll enjoy everything exponentially more if i can have headphones and music playing. i’m flighty and i’ll always love traveling, but having a home base is very important to me.

what about you?
you are a person and a work of art. nobody has your fingerprint and nobody has your specific genetic markup–there is literally nobody like you.  you have quirks, passions, things that make you happy and things that tick you off.
and you are worth loving–even from yourself.  you are worth the effort to develop and strengthen yourself as a person. you are worth feeling the things you feel. and nobody can take away your identity.

it’s so simple and so beautiful, when it resonates correctly. roll this around in your mind for a while.

you are a person.