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#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