vbartilucci:This was a response to a note I wrote to a witty,...

vbartilucci:

This was a response to a note I wrote to a witty, pretty young lady whose blog I follow, who insists on calling herself ugly. Flying, need I mention, in the face of a preponderance of evidence to the contrary.

It shatters me when I read people’s posts like this.  To think you’re ugly or in some way unacceptable is possibly the worst thing a person can feel.  I don’t know a person who hasn’t felt it at some point in their lives.  

There’s another young lady, an actress of some success, I hasten to add, who has admitted that she suffers from depression, and on occasion posts photos and word art that makes me worry about her.

I want to sit them all down and say “You’re SO young - you’ve barely started playing the game.  Don’t give up yet."

Those “it gets better" campaigns are great for kids growing up gay, but the same message goes for every kid who’s just plain growing up.  You really will get past this stuff.  You’ll graduate, and move on, and leave all the people who mock you behind, and you’ll find out that the people like you, and the people WHO like you, are far more numerous than they seem right now.

Give yourself a chance.  

There’s only the one of you.  Nobody has ever been you before, and no one ever will be again.  There’s no “You for Dummies" book you can read, no strategy guide to pull the cheat codes from.  

You figure it out as you go.

You swing at the slimes and scag pups mandragoras, and at some point, you hit a high enough level, and suddenly the battles you’ve been sweating through over and over suddenly seem easier, even though you don’t recall getting any bigger, or better at fighting them.  

Yes, that only means that more challenges will come along, but by that point, something changes.  You realize you CAN beat those bigger things, you just need to take your time. Grind a bit, but it has its rewards.  And you realize that you’ve worked so hard to get to where you are, that you’ve actually achieved quite a bit, and amassed a bunch of treasures that you think are quite nice, even if they won’t get more than a few gil in anyone else’s eyes.  They’re important to you. 

Eventually, you’ll look in the mirror and realize you’ve turned into a pretty nice character, and decide you don’t WANT to give up, if only cause you’ve worked this hard to get where you are, and why stop now?

If you don’t beat the boss, you can try again. You can go and get better, and come back, and try again.

One more level.

One more dungeon.

One more day.

C’mon, you can borrow my extra flail.

WHY DID THIS HIT MY FEELS.