Too thick? Too thin? Too lazy? Too ambitious? Too emotional? Too heartless? Too angry plain conceited spineless promiscuous self-centered spontaneous blunt irresponsible bold sad wild dorky smart driven timid busy accommodating perfect broken?
No. NO NO NO NO NO. You might be any of those things – hell, you might be ALL of them – but you are not only them. You are what you are what you are – and you are nothing to be ashamed of.
Don’t let any label someone else might slap on you be what defines you. Define yourself. Who are you??? I can’t answer that one. The question you might try asking instead: Who do you WANT TO BE? Figure it and and go be exactly that.
Be bold. Be smart. Be thoughtful, spontaneous, dorky and driven if that’s what you want. Pick any word. See how it means one thing when others use it to put you down, but how it takes on a whole different life when you stand squarely on top of it? OWN YOURSELF, my friends. Be the best version of who YOU are, or who you want to be. There’s nothing about you to be ashamed of.
This quote is pulled from Elizabeth Gilbert‘s fabulous new book City of Girls. If you haven’t read it yet, please stop everything and do so immediately. It’s a tremendous, transporting kind of story, but even more than that, a manual for getting good in your own skin. The world may not be straight, but we’re okay in it, just as we are.
