Abhi P.
Photography by Emmett Angle
If you’re reading this, have courage, be gentle with yourself.
Isn’t it strange how easy it is to be kind and supportive to your loved ones, yet how difficult it sometimes seems to be, to extend the same olive branch inwards? Isn’t it strange how, in an attempt to escape the same love we afford others, we twist and turn so furiously, concocting a galaxy of harsh justifications for why we don’t deserve self-love?
It’s all but too easy to feel as if we haven’t earned the right to be loved by others or our own self, not until we feel worthy. We set standards for ourselves so high, that they flicker in the sky among the stars. The rocket ship we take to chase them, fueled by our accomplishments and strengths, never quite attains escape velocity, instead pulled down by the crushing gravity of our self-doubt.
If I could be humble enough to make a suggestion, remember that you were once a child, filled to the brim with curiosity and wonder for the world and the cosmos. The harshness you treat yourself with chips away at that inner child until all that's left is an empty void. A black hole that strips away joy.
Keep in mind that you are a good person who values the people around you and that you too have tremendous value. You deserve to be treated with the same respect and kindness that you surely give others by your own self. Most importantly, you need not earn self-love, it is an inherent feature of the human condition that you deserve to love yourself unconditionally.
While walking this never-ending, long-winding path to self-love, remember that you walk not in spite of your flaws, but all the more because of them. May the wind on your back be not only the progress you’ve made in your journey, but also the attempts of progress, successful or not. And may any failures you’ve experienced serve as shining testaments to your character and desire to improve. I hope that as you struggle towards your ideals, you never forget the inner child within along with the lives you’ve improved on your journey. You deserve to be gentle with yourself.
Abhi P., Virginia Commonwealth University
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