Go be your favorite self

Once upon a time (more like some twenty odd years ago),I wrote this in one of my journals after a wonderful discussion with the middle school kids I worked with (who are now all adults with families and lives of their own):

Lord, please help me to be the person my youth group kids think I am.

I remember that when I wrote that, I didn’t think I was good enough. I didn’t think I was amazing. The environment I was living in had taught me that I had to stop being so extra, even if that “extra” was really the way I wanted to be because others had an idea of “normal” and I wasn’t that ideal. So to have people look up to me made me uncomfortable because I didn’t think I would ever be good enough to be someone’s role model for living life.

The other day, I saw a meme that I reshared. “Go and be your favorite self.” The same meme pointed out that we are used to hearing we should be higher or better. But the idea that being our favorite self leaves room for grace. It leaves room for mistakes. It leaves room for gratitude and mercy. It leaves room for all sorts of magic to happen.

The older I get, the more I realize I was trying to be the kind of person others wanted me to be. But I was losing the person I wanted to be in the process of becoming this “best” version of me because what others thought was best for me wasn’t what was good for myself. So I took a step back and decided instead of being the best and highest, I wanted to be the version of myself that child me would look up to. And while I am not the absolute ideal version, I have found that this silly, adventurous, crazy version of myself is my favorite self. And each and every day, I am finding something else that makes my little heart happy and becomes even more of a favorite.

So magical readers, go be your favorite self. Leave room for mistakes to be made. Give yourself grace when you misstep. Give others compassion when they do the same. And learn to do things for the mere joy of it. Make that magic. And one day, you will realize you ARE the person your youth group kids long ago thought you were. You also learn that maybe you always were.

Stay magical, friends.

Write your own story.

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