Appreciation Post: You’re beautiful.

The other day, I was speaking to someone who is going through tremendous self-doubt, emotional turmoil, and psychosomatic problems, and wanted to know how I cope with mine, and I told her, with not a little surprise, that while parts of this are news to me, despite it all, despite how it looks from her end, despite things looking dark and bleak at the moment for her personally, I am so envious of the family she has built, of the life story she has constructed, and of the academic/career peaks she has conquered that I’d love to have achieved half of what she had as on date. That I think she should know that there are people (like me) who find her amazing and what she has built, perfect in more ways than she could fathom.

So, here’s a message to all of you, my friends, my family, even those I have a passing acquaintance with, to everybody who can read this.

You are lovely. You, and the life you lead, however far it may seem from your social media image, is seen as so desirable, successful, and objectively better by someone, or many, that they wish they could exchange theirs with you. The way you have lived and loved, worked and struggled, built, broken, and rebuilt yourself, whether physically, emotionally, familialy, socially, financially, career-wise, relationship-wise, health-wise, discipline-wise, is looked upon, mostly without your knowledge, by someone, or many, of your friends, family, acquaintances, and at times even by people who you do not think know you, to be worthy of envy and emulation, even exchange!

You, and you know who you are, are beautiful, strong, and successful. And don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.