Day 25: I Love Me, I Really Love Me!

No.  This is not a picture of me thirty years ago... I would have been a year old.  This wonderful picture was taken just a few days ago when I dressed up for 80's Flashback Day at school.  I realized I hadn't really had a chance to share this picture with you all....and today would be a good day for it.

Today, I have to share with you five things I love about myself.  Both physically and non-physically.  And this picture leads me right in to number one on that list...

1.  I love to dress up and be silly.  

If there's a spirit day at work, I'm all giddy with excitement.  I love nothing more than dressing up in cute outfits or not so flattering attire just to make the kids laugh and have a good time.  And, in all honesty?  I really like this picture.  It's obvious I've gained a few pounds this past year... urm..yeah, let's say a few.  But, I don't look that bad in this picture.  My face doesn't look all bloated.  My shirt hangs well enough to not show off a bunch of bulges.  Overall, one of my favorite pics I've taken of myself in a very long time.

Last week was one of the biggest spirit weeks we've had.  I dressed up in western wear, as a hip-hop artist, like a woman from the 80's and like Adele.  Yes, the singer.  Our theme for our MAP tests is "The Mappy's" (think Grammy's).  The biggest is yet to come as tomorrow I dress up in a formal dress and get all glitzed and glammed up for the Mappy awards that will be held tomorrow afternoon.

I've spent quite a few pennies this past week on accessories to pull off my outfits - and I probably won't wear any of it again.  But, it's all for good fun...and it's one of the things I love about myself.  I don't mind being silly.  I love having fun.  And it doesn't bother me one bit to have people laugh at me...it's actually what it's all about.

2.  My Eyes

It's really hard to find a good picture that shows off my eyes... because I wear glasses.  They cover them up in pictures and I don't like it - but not enough to get contacts.  My eyes are the one physical feature I love on me.  They are so dark they look almost black.  I've received many compliments during the years about how "seductive" or "mystical" my eyes look.  Don't really care much about that... but I do love the color of my eyes.  They are not just a boring brown color (no offense brown eyed people).  They are so dark that you can't really see where the color ends and the pupil begins.  And I also love that they won't change no matter how fat or thin I am.  They are always the same.  I can dress them up with some eye shadow, or leave them all natural...and I love them either way.  And even though my glasses cover them up in pictures, they heighten them when I'm just normally dressed.  In fact, I've had many people tell me that the glasses compliment my eyes.  So, I guess the glasses stay.  HA!

3.  My Sense of Humor

I'm confident enough with myself that I can say that I think I have a wonderful sense of humor.  I'm a funny person.  Some people may not think so, but my family, my kids, my students, and many of my kids' friends think so...and that's really what's important.  I get through life cracking jokes.  I don't cry very often, and I'm convinced that's because I can make a joke out of the worst of situations.  In fact, I've said many times that if I didn't laugh so much I'd cry a lot more.

With my constant joke cracking, I'm also very fluent in sarcasm.  Oh, who am I kidding?  My first language is sarcasm.  In fact, the students in my class are becoming quite fluent in sarcasm themselves.  When they first walked in to my classroom 8 months ago, they just didn't get what I meant when I said "no...really?", "shocker", or "yeah.....no".  And just using those phrases right now out of context probably doesn't make much sense... but if you spent five minutes having a conversation with me - you'd probably hear all three of those phrases muttered in my most sarcastic of voices.  They didn't understand them then, but now it's nothing out of the ordinary to hear them utter those same phrases to their friends or other teachers in the hallways, classrooms, and cafeteria.  It's hilarious.

4.  My Ears

It's weird, but I really love my cute little ears... but trying to find a picture where you can see them is HARD!  Here's the only picture I could really find...and you can't really see my little ear that well.  But, another good pic, right?  This was taken a couple of years ago, when I was still in college.  It's also a good picture of my eyes with my glasses on.  But the main focus is the little, cute ear that sits on the side of my head.

I have tiny ears.  Not tiny enough to be considered weird looking, but small enough that I can wear my hair just about any way and they look cute.  They don't have any weird shape, they don't stick out, they are just small and perfect for my size of head.

I don't know many people who love their ears.  And to be honest, I didn't really think about it until I was putting my hair up in a pony tail a few minutes ago, even though I've thought about how cute they are many times looking in a mirror.  My ears don't get enough love.  I have a really hard time finding parts of my body I love in my current state.  Focusing on things that don't change with my ever expanding waist line makes me happy.  My eyes don't change with my weight, and neither do my ears.  They stay small and cute no matter how big I get.

5.  My heart.

Sorry, folks, no picture of that body part.  But, my absolute best feature about me really has got to be that muscle pumping gallons and gallons of blood around my body.  After years of abuse from eating junk food and not taking near enough care of the body that it's running as I should - it's done a pretty darn good job keeping up with me.  It somehow still gives me the ability to run around with kids.  It still allows me to walk around for hours without feeling like I'm going to die.  It gives me the belief that I will run again and lose weight and it will support me every step of the way.

I know many people that aren't as lucky.  Once they get to certain weight, tasks as simple as walking around a grocery store, climbing a few stairs, and even being on their feet all day in a classroom can become the hardest of chores.  I am thankful that my heart allows me to do all of those things...despite the size of clothes that I wear.  I can spend 7 hours on my feet and include some dodgeball and then go and spend a couple of hours walking around a track meet...and come home as if I just went out for a 5 minute stroll.  My heart is awesome.

The inner part of my heart is just as great as the physical part.  I have a big heart.  In the sense that I'm a loving and giving person.  The decisions I make in life are fueled by my heart.  I love what I do, I love the people I work with, I love my family, I love my friends....and I still have lots of room left for complete strangers and acquaintances.  I care about lots of things, a lot of people.  I can watch a commercial on TV for the Humane Society or starving children and tears well up in my eyes.  I want to help as many people as I can.  I want to volunteer my time at activities and events that benefit others.  I enjoy doing my part to put smiles on faces of those that don't have much to smile about.  It's just who I am.  Driven by heart.  And what wouldn't I totally love about that?

So, there you have the five things I love about myself.  I wish I could say that I'm not a fan of bragging on myself or showing love to myself...but that would be a lie.  I think it's very healthy to love yourself.  Even though there are a lot of things I don't like very much about myself - mostly physical stuff - there are many things I do.  I know I can change the physical stuff...and I will eventually.  But, what's on the inside is very important.  It makes me a beautiful person.  I am a beautiful person.  I just need to remind myself that more.