I had a pretty rough high school experience. I struggled with my mental health and self-confidence, and I allowed myself to remain in a downward-spiral of a relationship with someone I loved. I lost a best friend, I felt unsupported by my family, and my future seemed pretty darn bleak.
For so many years after I resolved these issues in my life, I was so ashamed of everything I went through. I saw it as a scar, as a fault, and as something wrong with me. I was embarrassed of anyone finding out what I went through and what I did to myself that I kept it hidden.
Fortunately (though it seemed so unfortunate at the time), my high school story was a huge part of me, and when you spend so much time and energy being ashamed of a huge part of yourself, it’s not exactly a healthy way to live. I wasn’t able to accept and affirm my whole self, and therefore a large part of my self-esteem and social anxiety issues continued.
At some point, I had a choice to make. I could either spend the rest of my life hiding my past from anyone who wanted to get close to me, or I could embrace who I am – flaws and all. I chose the second, and it’s allowed me to turn what I once saw as scars into badges of honor.
No, I’m not exactly proud of how I coped back in high school. I would by no means recommend that anyone did the same thing that I did. It is a part of me, though, and I love me. In order to do that fully and healthily, I need to love every part of me.
How exactly I turned those scars into badges of honor was through using my story to help others. My experiences drive my passion to speak and coach people to be the best version of themselves and to help people heal from trauma through natural methods. I’m taking what I learned and what I wish I knew and using it to educate others. I’m using my scars to show people that perfect is unrealistic and overrated, and that scars can be beautiful, too.
Maybe you’re like I was, stuck in a place of shame and self-hatred for the scars that you’ve gathered over the years. It can seem more comfortable and heck of a lot safer to stay that way and keep those scars hidden from the rest of the world, but I’m encouraging you to embrace your story and use it to make a positive impact on the world, whether by inspiring and educating others with it or by allowing it to fuel positive passions through which you can make a difference in the world.
Your whole story makes up who you are, even the bad parts. You’re a pretty amazing person, bad parts and all, and it’s time you realized that, too. You would not be the same person if you hadn’t gone through what you’ve gone through, and while I don’t want to sit here and say that happiness can’t exist without sadness or anything as cliche as that, it is true that the scars make up you as much as the successes do.
While you might not have loved the journey that you’ve been on, you need to at least respect it, as it’s made you into who you are – a powerful individual capable of overcoming incredible adversity. That, simply in itself, is something to be proud of.
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