LOVE THY SELF

I say it without shame: I love myself for who I am and what I have become! And credit goes to the Little Eva who loved playing with remote control cars, robots, built Lego towns and then made short animated clips out of the characters there, who kept diary after diary filled with poems, stories, and odes to then-crushes. I am a product of the choices that I had made as a child, and it’s only through the power of hindsight that I can say that I am happy to have made those choices.

My childhood wasn’t perfect, though. I grew up lonely and self-conscious. People (family, friends and strangers alike) ostracized me for being a little too overweight and that unfortunately crippled my self-belief (until now to a certain extent). But I managed to get through it (though it was unbearably painful at times) by being everybody’s teddy bear. It was the only way I know that people would respond to me in a positive mode.Ironically, however, it was in facing the scars and facing the pain once again that I have learned to make peace with myself. There are certain things that can no longer be changed, but these all carry valuable lessons that I will bring with me as I move forward. When I came face to face with myself and saw things as they were, I appreciated once more how everything turned out the way they did. It’s like that wonderful pause in the middle of a conversation with your best friend when you sigh contentedly and say, “Things have a funny way of working out, don’t they?” They sure do.