Things to Tell Yourself

Many of us have probably looked in the mirror and seen all the things we don't like. For me, I see my wide-ish nose and my small eyes. I see my plain features and my chin, which I've always thought was big. I see my round face.

What I don't see when I look at myself are my long eyelashes, the twinkle in my eye, my clear skin. I don't see my dimples or any of the other nice things about myself. I make myself think that my imperfections make me ugly, and I know that I am not the only person who does this to themselves.

Let's work together to stop that, and see ourselves as beautiful! Because we are, all in our own ways. Even your imperfections or the things you don't like make you beautiful, and they make you unique. Screw everyone who says otherwise! They're wrong, and you know it. You always have to know that they're wrong.

So find some things about you that you don't normally see - look at yourself really closely if you have to. Maybe you don't like your eye color, but what about your lip color? Maybe you have naturally really red lips and you like that - or maybe you don't, but you like that too. There are so many things you can find that you like about yourself! Make a list if you need to.

Write down the things you don't like too. Realize what you can change and what you can't - then you need to learn how to live with the things you can't change.

But don't do this just because this article is telling you to. Do it because you want to. Ddo it for yourself, and no one else. And that's pretty much basic advice for any decision you make in life, in my opinion.

I know that my first post in a while is sort of sappy, and I apologize for that, but I was feeling pretty sappy today.

Bratmobile

Lately I've been researching everything I can find about riot grrl, and in doing so I think I may have found my new obsession: Bratmobile.

Banned Books: An Essay

(Note: this is an essay I whipped up for english class. It contains spoilers for John Steinbeck's of Mice and Men as well as Looking for Alaska by John Green and Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. If you don't like spoilers, maybe you should read something else. Enjoy! )

In the past, as well as recently, books have been banned on the grounds of being sexually explicit, containing language that is considered to be offensive, or containing topics or information not suitable for young audiences - or any audience (American Library Association). This is done with good intention. The hearts of the people behind these decisions are "in the right place," so to speak.  According to Noam Chomsky, "if we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all." With this in mind, as well as the grounds on which all books have been banned, the justification of these grounds, and the grounds on which John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men has been challenged or banned, it is clear that this book should never have been banned at all.