This summer, I’m wearing shorts! Now this might not be worth mentioning to most people, but if you’ve ever had a hang up about your body that made you feel like you “can’t” wear certain things, then you get it. Because for me, for the longest time I had convinced myself that I couldn’t wear shorts.
I had an epiphany/flashback while I was filming my latest haul video that this might have something to do with a childhood experience I had in the fifth grade. We had a school trip to some sort of park and my little girl self (aged 10 years old at most) was teased and called fat whilst wearing a pair of shorts in front of her whole class but particularly in front of the boy she had a crush on. And that was that.
Yes, there were times where I’d still wear shorts either because I had too (for instance at school sports days) or the odd time where I’d purchase a pair of shorts myself, but the truth is, I never really felt comfortable wearing them. For whatever reason, I could wear the shortest skirts and dresses with confidence but I could not bring myself to comfortably wear shorts outside a beach or a gym. Illogical, I know.
Well until recently.
You know what they say about the older you get, the more confident you become in your body? Well it’s absolutely true. At some point, a light switch went off in my head. I simply refused to allow myself to be confined by these self-imposed restrictions and standards because life is TOO DAMN SHORT and the hard truth is, I’ll probably never look as amazing as I look now!
And so, for the first time in YEARS I purchased not one, but three pairs of shorts. And they didn’t sit in my closet for years until they eventually got donated to my local charity shop. No, that wasn’t happening this time. I forced myself to wear them as much as I possibly could to my recent holiday to Greece, and you know what, nobody can tell me these things aren’t mental because no one pointed at me in disgust as I walked down the street, and I didn’t flinch every time I caught my reflection in a mirror either. In fact, If you asked me, I looked AMAZING and not because I’ve lost weight or been going crazy in the gym (because neither are true) but because I FELT great.
And looking back at these photos, I wish there was a way I could tell younger self to let all that insecurity go and embrace my body for what it is – curvier than some, but beautiful all the same. And that’s a part of this beautiful journey called life.
Leave a Reply