Your hair
Your eyes
Your smile

Brown and shiny
Green and bright
Soft and sincere

You're pretty

Your skin
Your body
Your mind

Peach and inked
Plump but alive
Unhinged in love

You're pretty

Everything I have - Is because of me
Everything I've done - Is because of me
I am independence
I am standing alone
I am observing the world around me, learning from it, giving to it and being apart of it
I am improving my self worth every day and searching further into myself for what I am capable of being
I am amazing
I control my life and those who get to be in it
Nobody tells me what to do
I am strong because my spirit, body and mind are connected
I don't need shiny things
I need me.

I'm at the age right now,
when parents tell you that you are having,
"Identity issues".

I have news for all of you,
I'm not.
Having.
Identity.
Issues.

It's the exact opposite.
I have found myself.
And I love myself.
It is not unhealthy to love and appreciate yourself.
It is unhealthy,
to change for someone else's benefit.
Yet, this is what most want us to do.

There is a difference between changing yourself,
to affect others in the way that you want to affect them,
versus changing yourself just because they say so.

I have found myself.
I'm sorry if you don't like it.
I'm sorry if we don't share beliefs or ideas or anything at all.

I am not sorry,
for being myself.

And I will continue to live this way.
Believing that I am,
who I am,
and quite frankly,
I am enough.

I don't need your validation.
I don't need your affirmation.
All I need,
is for you to not tell me,
that I have identity issues.

(A Psalm of Affirmation, reaffirming
my faith in God.)

I have faith in God
Who gives me the strength
To climb mountains
And leap over walls.

He leads, guides
And protects me each day,
And restores all
That was taken away.
My heart safely rests in him.

The Lord is my life,
Health and strength.
He is the breath of my being.
My soul is happy in God.

Padding padded pockets is a leaf of golden steal
Leaving lovely leaflets that I read, and have to feel
Falling from the fountain that shot hope up in the sky
My most favorite leaflet is the one that makes me try

Please do it
And get it done
And be serious
And be fun
And enliven those around you to be their best

Never rest
Never settle

Let your world be determined by worth and mettle
Meddle in every affair
Detail every error
Never back peddle
Or be caught unaware

i used to do it for the attention
the likes
the retweets
the comments
on my pictures
on my tweets
on my statuses
on me

they made me feel validated
safe
secure
accepted
“you are good” my brain translated
“they like you” it went ?on, “that’s good"

they made me feel like i
belonged
somewhere

until they didn’t.

until i felt
numb
in the head
the words didn’t mean anything
the attention wasn’t enough

until i
couldn’t look myself in the mirror
without hating who i was
who i
became?
who i
who i
who i
who am i?

who
am
i?

and so i was forced to realize
forced — for if i didn’t, i may have died
i forced myself
to stop
i forced myself
to come to the conclusion
other people’s words did not matter
they did not matter

for if i let them matter
then i may have broken
to the point
that i could not put myself back together

“they matter” my brain told me.
“no, they do not.” said my mouth. “they do not matter.”
“yes they do.”
“no they don’t.”
“they— ?”
“— don’t.”
“but — “
“they don’t.”
“th— “
“”they don’t matter.”
“you don’t believe— “
“whether or not i believe, they still do not matter.”
“they won’t accept you.”
“they don’t have to.”
“they won’t love you.”
“but i will."
“but — “

“they,” i said
to the ‘me’ in the mirror
slowly
surely
determinedly
“do not matter."

they did not matter they did not matter  they did not matter they did not matter they did not matter they did not matter they did not matter they did not matter they did not matter they did not matter they did not matter they did not matter they did not matter they did not matter they did not matter they did not matter they did not matter they did not matter they did not matter they did not matter

for the only one that mattered
the only opinion that mattered
the only validation that mattered

was mine.