#HowHardDidAgingHitYou
I’m a child in that ‘before’ photo
coordinated outfits and
recess and
lunch money and
I was beautiful then, too.
How unfair it is
to yourself ten years ago, to
mock who you were
before you got here.
I didn’t need mascara or
twenty-two karat gold or
shellac nails or
expectations of beauty
when I was 14.
This isn’t fair to anyone
and especially to you;
punish and prize
in one photo collage
simply because time passed.
Aging doesn’t hit, it just happens.
I do not have the strength to
hit and criticize the old me
because, sometimes,
I wish I lived in ‘before’.
***
Truthfully, I did think about taking part in this viral challenge. It’s easy to jump on a bandwagon and take part in this immediate validation of how you perceive your worth today vs ten years ago.
For me, I knew that it wasn’t fair to me and what I’ve gone through since 2009. You would’ve seen a 14 year old child compared to a 24 year old adult. You wouldn’t have seen all the things that shaped me, not the summer bonfire memories, or late nights on the phone with friends, or winning awards and getting in the yearbook, or suffering through bulimia and self-loathing, or moving to the big city, or professional leaps in my career. The surface level difference would have done me a disservice. The last ten years of my life were worth more than two photos side-by-side.
What do you think of the Ten Year Challenge? I’m not judging if you did or didn’t do it, and I’d love to hear your perspectives in the comments below.
Love,
ELLE
Your words ❤️
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Thank you!!
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I will not indulge in the latest gimmick. It serves no constructive purpose for me.
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And it also doesn’t show the progress that doesn’t show on the outside. It seems to prize ‘traditional’ transformations and not untraditional ones. Someone who has lost weight vs someone overcoming social anxiety do not appear the same, for example. Thank you for your input!
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For me, I thought it was a reflection, and a boost to break bounds.
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I absolutely do see it as a reflection, but I worry it is so surface-level that people are attributing their ‘progress’ as only external. A lot happens behind closed doors that social media doesn’t get to see. I love the original premise but I think that it has become oversimplified, and has the potential for a lot of self-worth implications. Thank you for commenting!
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Nah, I’m not going to play. I think it’s a data gathering exercise meant to perfect facial recognition and AI software.
The verse is great – insightful.
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An interesting point of view I never thought of! It certainly would be an easy way to get that information, huh. Thank you!
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Great post! I didn’t know there was a 10-year challenge and probably wouldn’t indulge in it anyway. I’m too old school and have a natural rebellion to what’s trending. I will say that I have grown tremendously in the past 10 years and although I know I still have a lot of growing to do, I am proud of my progress. I love your post! It definitely has me on a self-reflective wave of my own and I can definitely appreciate that. Inspirational!
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Yes, it seems to be all over social right now. I agree that the ‘growth’ is more than the external appearance and definitely isn’t the only thing worth celebrating. Thank you!
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You’re most welcome! Keep writing and posting! Blessings and prosperity to you!
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Elle, thank you for bringing us the ten-year challenge. To me, all the changes are on the outside. The inside didn’t change and remains exactly how it was ten years ago. I can still, in my mind, do all the things I did ten years ago. I can run, I can jump, I can take long walks, and I can climb up on the roof of the house. The outside looks differently, ten years older, though and it tells my “inside” that you can’t do all of the things that you did ten years ago. Your challenge is very challenging and helps bring my inside into perspective. Thanks for posting. ❤ Stan
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Interesting the perspective you have! I’ve never considered that side of it. Thank you for sharing, Stan!
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You’re so consistently awesome. You’re living a meaningful life and we’re so lucky to read your thoughts. You really matter .🙏👍❤
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You’re too kind! Thank you Jim 🙂
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Wow this is really a great line of thinking. Never perceived such mockery in a general acceptable challenge. Great insight
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Thank you xo
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You welcome elle😌
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Love your attitude but I think you may have missed the point of the 10 year challenge as I see it. I see myself, as you do, as so much more than how I look. My scars, my late nights feeling alone, my killing time when i couldn’t admit to my family I was laid off. I still look similar on the outside but on the inside I am so much more than I was back then even though I had more money, weighed less and has ten years more energy
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I do think the focus on the inner progress is worth more than just a photo. I do agree with you. Thanks for sharing!
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When you’re 66 and half a century or so has past, you won’t remember what you did in the 56th year, let alone your 14th. Maybe a good thing about getting old?
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The passage of time is certainly relative to the one living it. Thanks for sharing!
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Another gem of a poem, Elle. I’m constantly comparing the present me to the past me, as is reflective in much of my poetry. The biggest difference from ten years ago is the empty nest where I write these days. I will give this some more thought today and who knows what may happen. Have a lovely day.
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Thank you, John!
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Beautiful ❤️💙
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Reblogged this on http://www.SPCL.tk ❤️.
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I read a few of your poems… and they prove, beauty comes from within!
and dont u forget it!
❤️
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Thank you, you’re so kind!!
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U’r welcome, not sure if u reply to me or someone else… hahaha… doesn’t matter, take good care gurl!
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I genuinely applaud you not only for your perspective on this topic but also for your way of looking and accepting aging as a on going process. You go, Elle!
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You’re too sweet! Thank you, it’s definitely a thing to learn over time. A tough one, at that.
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Reblogged this on davidbruceblog #2.
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One thing that people find is that they were beautiful although at the time they worried about their looks.
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It’s all about hindsight, isn’t it? How easily we forget that. Thanks for coming by!
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One of my sisters worried about how pretty she was in high school. Now she looks at photos from back then and realizes that she was very pretty. (She still is.)
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YES 100%! I always look back on old photos thinking about how ___ I was. One day I know I’m going to look back and think that about myself right now, so that realization has kept me simplistic: just go with it.
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I’m not a get on the bandwagon kind of person but I did post this link on FB https://www.facebook.com/427599210663452/photos/a.433344016755638/2149012301855459/?type=3&theater. It was a good laugh!
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Hahahaha you got me there! Thanks for sharing that 🙂
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🙂
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Well said Elle! I really like this post.
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Thanks, friend!
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What is it they say, relationships don’t grow in the things you say and do, it’s the spaces inbetween, or something like that. My memory notwithstanding, that sentiment seems to basically sum up the 5/10/25-year comparison game.
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That’s a great quote! I do agree, the spaces inbetween are often the ones we forget about first–how far we’ve come, and so much more to go! Thank you.
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All these challenges seem like a waste of time to me, and I’ve not yet participated in any of them. That might just be my hipster-esque self-righteousness showing through, however.
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Haha perhaps, but I do think these gimmicks have become so mainstream that sometimes, we can’t tell the difference. There’s a hipster in all of us, I suppose. Thanks Josh!
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Ah, life’s gimmickry lures us into the outside looking in rather than the inside looking out. Inner beauty much more important than shellacked nails. Excellent writing.
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Absolutely, thank you for the love! We’re so much more than what we can count arbitrarily.
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Lord. I apparently live under a rock so had no idea it was occurring! But I’m with You. Practice only sweetness for myself of 10 years ago. I was who I was and was doing my best. Nobody deserves to be summed up. It’s impossible….ever….if You ask me. Rock on, Beauty!!! ❤️
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Yes, doing your best is always enough! Thank you for the love. ❤
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Trends come and go. I have enjoyed ageing (I am in my 30s) and I do t lie about my age or what I have achieved or what I haven’t. I am just going with the flow. Great post!
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Yes, go with the flow! The most radical thing you can be, is yourself. Thank you!!
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I did not do the challenge either, thought it was silly and not reflective of my decade either 🙂
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We all should go by that mantra–do things because you want to, but because everyone else is! Thank you xo
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I love the writeup more than the poetry. Very true!
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Thanks, friend!! xo
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I saw the first one or two people do that, and was inspired to look at a bunch of old photos. Then I ended up doing a post of several photos through the years. I guess that’s the contrarian in me. “I think the idea’s not terrible but the execution is lacking in, so I’ll do something different using your idea as inspiration.” I took it more as a walk down memory lane than a summation of the complete span of the time between the pictures.
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I can absolutely understand that–it was really refreshing actually, to see some of those old photos unearthed. I did worry about the sentiment behind the negativity for ‘before’ photos, and I think that’s where my inspiration came. I do agree with you. Thanks for sharing!
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Awesome
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