What do you see when you look in the mirror? Me personally I see myself, a 5’11 shaggy ginger, with a pair of green eyes, freckles scattered on my face, full lips, and a face in definite need of a shave. Now let me just say, I think I’m that guy, hot stuff if you would. I’m a novelty, I mean how many attractive gingers do you know? I feel bad for everyone who hasn’t seen me, you’re missing out, those who have can attest to that.

Now at this point you’re probably wondering if I meant to put that on a dating profile and thinking, “This guy is sure full of himself.” And to that I would say I don’t have a dating profile (sorry ladies) and that yes, I am full of myself, and you should be too.

I struggled for a while with my self-image, primarily in middle to high school. I always thought I was too skinny, and in fairness I did have a slender frame, but it was nothing to be self-conscious about. Yet I was, I thought I had skinny legs that stuck out like a sore thumb and arms as narrow as straws. And my lips were way too big as well, like why on earth were my lips so pronounced. So naturally, my younger self wore long sleeved shirts, jackets, and pants all the time, and loathed when the hotter weather rolled around. I’m sure many of you can share similar experiences at some point in time, unfortunately it is pretty common to be self-conscious of yourself.

“Okay great nice sob story, but what does this have to do with being full of yourself,” is what you snobby folks are probably thinking. Don’t rush me, it’s rude you know.

But truthfully what started to help me with my self-image besides working out was being quote unquote, “full of myself”. Now when I say full of myself, I don’t mean I am actually full of myself. When I say that, I mean I made jokes, jokes that weren’t self-deprecating. Stupid, silly jokes that I would make with my friends (and still do), about how great I was, how good I looked, how smart I was, you get the idea. They started out as jokes, but the more I made these jokes the more I started to believe them. I started to look in the mirror and see how good I looked, the defined jawline, the flattering red hair, the eyes that could pierce a soul, and the smile that could make you melt. Whoops, that one was meant for the dating profile.

But it’s true, I truly started to see these things in myself, no longer did I think my arms were horribly skinny and I was confident enough to wear shorts. Again, working out did help some, but even when I eventually became inconsistent with that (couldn’t tell you the last time I was at the gym), this idea that I was a 10/10 lived on. You’ve heard the phrase fake it till you make it, well it isn’t just a phrase, it is true as I have found out. Of course, it is not that simple, it takes proper application and belief from within, but everyone is capable of doing it.

Being self-conscious of yourself sucks. Whether it is your looks, personality, intellect, what have you, none of that is enjoyable. And I hate seeing those I know struggle with that, because in my eyes they are the most incredible people I know in the world. They are what makes life worth living, the pieces of the puzzle that somehow make a picture. It truly is just the old saying “I wish you could see yourself the way I see you”. How true that is. I was told that by a friend of mine and it has stuck with me since, because man, how I wish the people around me knew how amazing they are.

I will admit I am a little worried that this post is going to fall a bit flat, I am not entirely sure why I even decided to write on this. I also am ill at the moment, so that definitely does not help me think clearly. I truthfully do not believe there was anything that happened in my life recently to spark this, in fact I was originally going to write on why good things don’t happen or something like that, trust me it made more sense in the shower. I was even going to tie that into the Steelers Ravens game somehow. But when I got into bed and pulled out my laptop I started typing and this came out. How, I’m not sure, I probably won’t even remember typing this when I wake up. If anything, the bottom line that I want people to take away from this is that they are beautiful. A beautiful, amazing person, and I hope that they realize that if they haven’t already. Because I see it and so many others do, and I hope they do too.

(I still need to put a song in here somewhere, so I suppose I’ll just put one here as I think it is somewhat fitting)