Mirrors.

Have you ever noticed that how you feel about your appearance can vary depending on what mirror you're looking into? For instance, the mirror in my car always projects this deceptively hideous reflection of myself. Unfortunately, this happens to be the mirror into which I'm almost always looking while I apply my make-up. Ergo, I spend a lot of mornings feeling exceptionally ugly. Then, later in the day I'll look at myself in a different mirror and be like, "daaaaang, lil mama"(the voice of my inner monologue is black) without changing anything about my appearance. I'm sure it all comes down to differences in lighting and quality among the varying mirrors, and the endless mystery of the human psyche, but it's still bizarre to me.

I think this can be symbolic of the way we see ourselves through other people. Some people make us feel like a million dollars when we look into their eyes. Other people can make us feel extremely insecure. Some people shed light on the blemishes we fail to completely cover up, while others have just the right light to make our smiles look their whitest. There are people around which we can never fully be ourselves, and it's as if we're constantly sucking in to make sure we're just right. And then there are those people whom we love that make the perfect mirrors, the ones that reflect us just as we are. And although they don't ask us to change anything, they help us become the person we want to see when we look at ourselves.

Trying to change people is like cleaning a mirror. When we clean mirrors we merely scan the surface for toothpaste and water spots without actually seeing what is being reflected. It's an odd feeling to look at a mirror without looking into it; you have to deliberately limit your sight. Sometimes we try to "clean" people without really seeing them and without seeing ourselves. All we see is what needs to be removed to make them better.

I'm not really sure what the moral of this post is. I suppose I am just imploring everyone to focus less on the problems you see in your own (and others') reflections and try to consistently love the person you are despite the lens through which you are viewing yourself. It's okay to see things you'd like to work toward changing, as long as you still love the person that you are. You are beautiful, I hope you know that.