Apr 24, 2011

Through Others' Eyes

Today's post is sponsored by the letter

As in . . . Ursula, from The Little Mermaid.

A few months ago my friend was drawing likenesses of some of her followers and asking everyone to guess who she'd drawn. She drew them as mermaids, fairies, avatars and any other fantasy creature she could think of and they were all beautiful. In jest, I told her NOT to draw me as a skinny little sea creature, that I wanted to be something more robust and . . . well, ME.

So a couple weeks later, a new drawing popped up on her blog.

Now, honestly, I have to admit it took me by surprise. Did I really look like THAT?

YEP!  I did, and still do.

Someone told the artist that the picture would hurt my feelings so she took it down, but it didn't hurt me.
I mean, it was exactly what I asked her to do.
And it WAS me. 
And my friend has a heart of gold and would never do anything to hurt me. EVER!

I think it's hard sometimes to see yourself through others' eyes. And not just the bad parts, but also the good. I have a LOT of friends in the writing community and most of them I've met. Some I haven't. It scares me to think I won't be accepted as I am when they see me in person. That fear has been a part of my life. But I have just as hard a time accepting the compliments, as do most people. It's hard to know what is genuine.

Confidence is a hard thing to hold on to. But I do love ME and I have to believe others do to.
I am who I am, take it or leave it. 


Is there something about you that makes you less confident? Something that your self-conscious about?
I'd love to have you share it with me.



6 comments:

  1. That's you! (Though I have to say I don't remember the tentacles...)

    Last night, my husband took a picture of me, and laughed and laughed at it. I didn't really get it, because even though my expression was slightly goofy (on purpose), I thought it really looked like me. Not sure what that means about me.

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  2. I love that picture! :D And I mentioned the Sea Witch in my "U" post too. Woo! :)

    I generally am not photogenic, but I try to see the good side of every photo that gets taken of me.

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  3. I'm very self-conscious around people I don't know. I try to be myself, but it's hard. I just want people to like me, but never know if they really do or if they are just saying hi to be nice. I need to get over it. I've always been this way, but I'm working on it. :)

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  4. I admit being self conscious when I speak sometimes. With a keyboard, I have time to think about what I'm going to say, thus doing a much better job at expressing myself than in person, with my mouth. Still working on that. Sweet post.

    Speaking of sweet, I passed an award onto you. Come over to my blog if you want to claim it. :)

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  5. My weight for sure, but my smile also. I have a thin upper lip and I hate that my gums show. What can you do. I'm still learning to love and accept myself. My way of dealing with it is to not think about myself and just focus on the awesomeness of everyone else. I never could gauge how other see me. I can tell you that I think you're a beautiful person in and out and that's just from getting to know you through your words and how I've seen you interact with and help other writers. Pure awesome! :)

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  6. My favorite person in the whole world passed on four years ago last Thursday. I miss her completely. I'd planned to be a part of her life and her to be a part of mine for many years to come. I wanted to retire in her home town and spend years together having fun. She's a big person, but that never mattered to me because she was more fun and more loving than anyone else I'd ever known. And, she was my mother-in-law. Not a member of the church. Very much into genealogy, just like her son. Size doesn't matter. Personality does. For me, I never felt self-conscious in my life until I got this darn old!!! *wrinklewrinkle*sagsag* PS I could care less about your size. Your coolness, intellect, savvy personality, and skills say more about who you really are. : )

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