Saturday, January 24, 2009

Beauty in the Masses

I spent some time this morning during my study thinking about how we as women are so often the harshest critics of other women. I recalled with not just a little stab of emotion the way I felt when I went through Rush at Kansas State University back in 1988. I remember the knot in the pit of my stomach when I realized just how precise some of the comparisons were when they were drawn by the rushees on the rushers.

I was raised with 6 brothers in a small rural town in Southwest Kansas. Clinique counters were not close. I had spent precious little time thinking about how I looked, especially in comparison to other girls my age. Once thrust into the University life with the integration of all types of young ladies from all types of backgrounds, I found myself studying others with an artist's intensity, only to turn the study to myself with both curiosity and the beginning of a new longing to be different than I was.

I turn 40 this year, and I do feel God beginning a deep work to shed my insecurities. As I shared in my discussion group this past week, it is time to realize and rock the fact that I am always going to be 5'2"!

How about you? Do you remember the time when your awareness of yourself in the pool of the masses began to take shape? How have you dealt with your own insecurities? If you have found a place of confidence, what advice would you give your fellow Sisters?

2 comments:

  1. Just wanted you to know that I am here. lol

    Marta

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  2. One of my earliest memories of awareness of self has to be in junior high when "Guess" jeans became THE jeans to have. Junior high is hard enough anyway, nevermind trying to fit in with "the cool kids". I still deal with those same insecurities today. Sometimes, it's still about the jeans! (or my inability to fit into the jeans) Insecurities and self image are still something I struggle with almost everyday.

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