You are Beautiful. [pass it on]

I'm going to start with a really quick question: Are you beautiful? [Or, if you're a guy and you're going "uh...awkward.", well you know what I mean...] And now I'm going to answer it for you: You are.

Keep this question in mind, and I'll explain to you why I asked you it later.

I've always thought that I have a pretty weird memory. No, not meaning that I have Alzheimers or anything of that sort [haha speaking of which, how ironic is it that it took me so long to remember the name of that disease? :P] but it's more like the things that I commit to memory are often the smallest most unexpected things. It's usually things that speak out to me, or strike me as particularly memorable....impactful. The other day, I was at a camp and on the last day, we had a particular assembly on "empathy." After that assembly, I had one of those weird memory moments, and until today, I'm unable to forget it...it was just that impactful. The tone of the assembly was morose, serious, and definitely touching. If you're wondering what in the world "empathy" means [and don't worry, I didn't know for a while either :)], here, I'll actually give you the dictionary definition of it:

Empathy is the capacity to recognize and, to some extent, share feelings (such as sadness or happiness) that are being experienced by another sentient or semi-sentient being. Someone may need to have a certain amount of empathy before they are able to feel compassion. <---Why thank you, Wikipedia (;

Empathy. It can be such a powerful world because of it's affect on others. Did you know that even the one small action of reaching out to one person could quite possibly prevent them from making the decision to end their life? (I've heard personal accounts of this happening before.) Anyhow, this assembly in particular was oriented towards the number of teens each year who resort to suicide because they are being bullied, those who suffer daily in their life because of factors (like abuse, an unstable family, moving) that they are not in control of, but still get picked on for. Now I'm not sharing this being I feel like I'm the perfect role model for helping others out (because even I'll admit, sometimes even I am unable to go up to a bully and say "hey...cut. it. out.") but because I feel like this is a topic that as many bullying assemblies that we have in school, never really is taken as seriously as it should be.

I think part of what puts everything in perspective is when you hear a personal story. When another person the exact same age as you (who you would have thought is completely content and happy with their life) opens up and you hear some of the scariest yet most eye-opening things. You never would have guessed that he's blind in his left eye because he was abused when he was younger, I mean he's so happy. You never would have guessed that she was anorexic and about to run away before, I mean, she's a cheerleader now. So, what makes people bully others? What makes people resort to the negative actions that can often negatively impact others' lives? The answer is simple: They don't think that they are beautiful. That sounds awfully cliche, but it's true. Somewhere along the path of their lives, a tiny piece of their self confidence broke off, and ever since then, they've felt the need to take it out on others. You can argue about whether it's their personal choice or not, but that's besides the point. The point is, if we all truly did believe that we were well, beautiful, things would be better.

Haha okay, I sort of feel like I just gave a mini lecture up there (and you're probably thinking to yourself that this is so overrated and you've heard it a million times...but that's okay.), and it's okay if half of you didn't read it (: But if anything, I hope that you take away these final words: You are a unique individual unlike anyone else. You are special, different, and there is no one out there who can take that away from you. 

...And if you ever meet someone who doesn't believe this, well, tell them it's true. You never know how big of an impact it can have on their life.