How to Love Yourself

The creative writing piece below was awarded second place in a recent creative writing competition at my son's school.  I was both awed and inspired by how a 7 year old was able to capture so beautifully the natural human struggle of learning to love yourself. It was also a reminder that our little ones, especially during turbulent times, need reassurance that everyone is different, nobody is perfect and the best person they can ever be is themselves!

Written by Veer Gathani (7 years old)

A moment later as the curtain slid open,
I looked in to the mirror feeling so broken.

I stared at myself in the polished mirror,
Thinking how I wished to see myself more clearer.
That feeling of sadness, that feeling of embarrassment, Travelling through my spine as if it was my punishment.
But now I see there was more than just horror,
All I needed to do was become an explorer.
Finding my true self, the one I struggled to see,
I am the colossal, the magnificent me.
Eyes as wide and as glistening as a Roman shield,
Arms as strong as a farmer farming his field.
My back no longer hunched, no longer bent,
It stands tall, it carries all my strength.
My furrowed brow turns smooth with a blink of an eye,
And I realise what I had seen before was only a lie.
There are no more feelings of loneliness to be had,
In the mirror I see a mammoth being that is so glad.
The fear and pain is gone for good,
No need to ever again feel misunderstood.
Beauty is there in all of our souls,
Sometimes we struggle and it’s out of our control.
We are all different, we are all unique,
We must never fear being who we are, we must never be weak