Dear Ladies,

So far this month, we’ve talked about knowing who you are and who you are becoming. It’s important to explore these those things in order to be comfortable and confident in yourself. Our environment and social media tends to give us some unspoken guidelines on what is acceptable to share, what is acceptable to say and when it’s okay. Not everyone is comfortable and confident with themselves and it’s human nature to compare ourselves. Unfortunately, all of these things encourage a mentality that doesn’t allow us to be ourselves, unapologetically. I want us to stop apologizing for our “flaws”, our opinions, our passion, and our blessings. …notice that I said “us”, because I am working on this too.

Do NOT apologize for your Blessings.

Maybe your parents make a lot of money, maybe you live in a big house, maybe you got a scholarship for college, maybe you’ve always had the figure that your friends wanted, maybe you have flawless skin or maybe you don’t get sick easily. Whatever it is, recognize your blessing and don’t apologize for it. Also, don’t be the person that acts like someone else should apologize for their blessing, or constantly complain and tell them that they wouldn’t understand. Personally, I haven’t had to struggle like some people and worry about what I’m eating or whether or not I can afford college. I also worked hard to receive the grants and scholarships that I do have. Now that I’m in college, I continue to apply for scholarships and work A LOT in order to take care of things that I need and have a few things that I want. I’ve done my share of feeling bad for my privileges and blessings just because someone else was intimidated or jealous of it. I’ve come to a point where I realize that all these things are blessings, so I absolutely refuse to apologize for them.

Do NOT apologize for your “Flaws.”

Okay, can I be petty for two seconds? We all know that girl who post pictures on instagram with captions like “excuse my forehead” or my favorite: “excuse this dirty mirror but…”. Honey, you could have cropped out your forehead if you really wanted to; and Sweetie girllll, you could have taken 5 seconds to clean your mirror if you really cared about how it looked. Alright *hops off petty soapbox*. If it’s not something that you can change, learn to love and appreciate it. Everyone has something that they don’t love about their appearance, but you will feel so much better if you embrace it. Your differences are literally what make you who you are!

Do NOT apologize for your Passion.

Have you ever talked to somebody about their hopes and dreams and watched in amazement as their eyes lit up, their skin glowed and they had a smile that nobody can denied, and then they just stopped and apologized because they got “too excited” or felt that they were “talking too much”. Or maybe someone has asked you about your hopes and dreams and you lit up with excitement only to apologize moments later for getting carried away. Whether this describes you or someone that you know, it is heartbreaking for the person watching this happen. When you find something that you are passionate about, something that energizes you, never lose sight of that. Don’t let any boy, any friend, any classmate, any teacher, any boss take that away from you. Passion keeps your heart beating and anyone who matters will enjoy hearing your heart beat!

Do NOT apologize for your Opinion.

Listennnnnn, you are entitled to your opinion. You have every right to think what you think and believe what you believe. You already know that everyone won’t always agree with you and some people will write you off for the way that you feel and think and for the beliefs that you carry. If you were to cut off everybody from your life who didn’t agree with all of your beliefs and who didn’t value your opinion, then you would have nobody around you. Matter of fact, you wouldn’t even have yourself, because sometimes your actions contradict what you say that you believe and sometimes you values the opinion of the world more than your own opinion. So maybe you should consider being tactful in the way that you share your opinions and stop giving unsolicited opinions unless it is necessary, butttt you have every right to have your opinion so don’t change it to please anyone who doesn’t matter and definitely do NOT apologize for it.