One night while fellow senior Sydney Carlson and I were talking about our lives, our conversation transitioned from college applications to memories of junior high.
We remembered waking up every morning and trying to look impeccable — perfect makeup, perfect hair, perfect everything. Nothing could be out of place, or we would not have a place.
Spending time thinking about these days made us realize that the true stem of the “junior high perfection disease” is a lack of self-confidence.
This harmful and rather pathetic mindset caused both of us to do things to ourselves and to each other that were not at all right.
All we wanted was to fit in, and we were willing to change ourselves — and even turn on each other — for this acceptance.
We never want another young girl to go through what we went through.
So, because of this late-night revelation, we walked up to our journalism adviser, Greg Stobbe, and asked for his permission to start a blog that addressed self-confidence. Our goal was to humiliate, self-assure and ultimately change our view of ourselves.
The first thing we had to do to start this blog was to find a title. We had reflective titles, such as “Mirror, Mirror,” and generic ones, like “Self-Confidence.” But we ended up rejecting both of these ideas and going with the title of an inspiring book by Melody Carlson, Becoming Me.
“Becoming Me” has a double meaning for us. Our audience is junior high and high school students who are at the time in their lives where they are coming into the person they are meant to be.
But the main reason for choosing this title was that we honestly believe that when someone becomes assured in who they are, they become their truly beautiful self.
After beginning in August, we imposed a new challenge on ourselves every month. We did not wear makeup, we did not do our hair, we had a month of total kindness and currently we are trying to break out of our comfort zones.
These challenges were meant to inspire our audience. However, they ended up changing us inside and out.
We have been totally humbled by this blog. We went into this experience thinking that we were self-confident, but found out we were just as insecure as the girls we were trying to reach out to.
This living blog has forced us into a realization that we are a change in the making, and we are totally up for the changes ahead.
For more experiences, read the Dec. 16 column, Junior high chapel educates senior.
