The Importance Of Loving Yourself

If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be? See now everyone is thinking about things they’d like to change about themselves, someone no matter who or what will always want to change something whether it be eyes, nose, lips, hair, face, body, name, etc. there is always something someone thinks about wanting to change, actually some people are so self-conscious they’ll actually change through plastic surgery, legally changing your name, hair dye, etc. I know this because I have thought about this too, just think about it all of us are self-conscious, dressing in clothing we wouldn’t usually wear, packing tons of makeup on our faces, doing things we don't want to do, saying things we don't want to do, and so on. Why do we do this?

We do this because we don't love ourselves for who we are, sure we say we love ourselves trying to talk ourselves into thinking we love ourselves but deep down we all know we don't love ourselves fully. Our expectations are too high for ourselves thinking, ‘oh I did fine on that but I could do way better than that’ but in reality, you were amazing I know this for a fact because I do this to myself, In soccer, my expectations are so high, kids my age are trying to reach my level when I'm trying to reach a professionals level, sometimes I’m so hard on myself I’ll cry thinking I did terribly but in reality my parents said I looked just as good as the other players. Not only are my expectation high but also my father’s which really pushes my expectations, through my whole life all I ever got from my father after a soccer game, practice, and tryout was, ‘you stood out’, ‘you did fine’, ‘you did well but you could’ve done better’, ‘you did okay’, ‘you were terrible’, ‘you were horrible’, ‘you need to practice this and that’, ‘you could’ve done better on this or that’, ‘you looked like every other player on that field’, ‘you looked like the worst player on that field’, when I was younger he was less harsh on me so I would get a ‘you did a good job out there’ but I never got a ‘you did great’, ‘you did amazing’, ‘you were awesome’. That is something that also pushes my expectations because I want my father to be happy about me and to feel proud of me.

I move soccer teams a lot just like I move schools a lot and I’m always new, I hate being known as ‘The new kid that’s good’ It makes me feel left out, odd, an outsider, but what I hate the most is when people only want to be your friend because you’re good at something, that has happened so many times with me especially in middle school. I come from a well-known city in Minnesota called, St. Paul, In St. Paul I had a lot of family members that loved and was good at soccer and we all went to the same schools so it made me feel freer than I do now, I didn’t feel like ‘The new kid that was good’ I felt like I was known as ‘Haylee Vue’ but many uncles and aunties knew me as my fathers (M. . . ) daughter. It made me mad knowing that no one knew me as ‘Haylee Vue’ but as ‘M. . . s daughter’. They also had high expectations from me since my father was a great soccer player from what I’ve heard. That’s why I wanted to create this speech to show that no matter who you are, why you’re here, female or male, kid, teen, or adult, there’s a difference in everybody. All men are created equally, No matter who you are, where you’re from, your skin color, your gender identity, we are all the same on the inside, if the outside matters so much then we should have never segregated, but that dent in the universe will never change because that dent actually made a hole in the universe.

Actually, sometimes I look out at the dark night sky and I wonder if I am a lost star in the galaxy, I wonder if I really love myself or if I’m just trying to convince myself I love myself because I now think that I’m only convincing myself. It’s just like how the king is convincing the Britains he's actually doing something but is he really doing something or is he just there to make the Britains feel like their safe and that they could rely on the king, well the men who signed the Declaration of Independence thought different because they wouldn’t have made it if they thought the same. I use to and still sometimes always wish and daydream that I am a superhero or I have magic powers to change the world and make it a better place like I’m a lost star, a dot in the night sky trying to light up the galaxy by myself. After writing and reading this I am pushing myself to the state of my life where I try loving myself, where I try showing myself I have reasons I should love myself, I will own up to being who I am because I am who I am for all of my flaws and mistakes, I may have made a mistake yesterday and I may have had a mistake today but I will take these mistakes and reflect off of them and I may be a tiny bit wiser tomorrow but I may also make a mistake tomorrow. I will Love Myself and I urge you to speak yourself, love yourself, be yourself, because bit by bit, day by day, I will love myself just the way you should love yourself.

My favorite band is called Bangtan Sonyeondan (BTS) and RM made a speech at the United Nations about loving yourself and they have had 3 albums about loving yourself, In one of their Intro songs called Epiphany by Kim Seokjin (Jin) he sings the chorus, “I’m the one I should love in this world Shining me, precious soul of mine, I finally realized so I love me, Not so perfect but so beautiful, I’m the one I should love” and this made me realize I should love me if I were to love anyone in the world. They have so many more songs and they had even written a song called “Love Myself”. It’s about how it’s hard loving yourself but they have people in their life showing them that they can and have reasons to love yourself. Love Yourself. And be equal to all men, and be that dot that lights up the dark night skies.