An open letter to who I admire

To Who I Admire,

A journey of self-love is one people think is best done alone. If you asked me a year ago, I’d tell you it’s a journey to embark on solo, due to the fact that it really is only involving yourself. But, you aren’t asking me a year ago — I mean, you really aren’t asking me at all — but I’m here to tell you that a journey of self-love is done best when you have people around you that are only going to lift you up.

I know you’ve done so much growing this year. You’re everything I look up to in a person. What I admire about you is that no matter what you have going on, you always listen to me. You always offer an open heart when I come to you with my self-inflicted drama. You always smile at me and wait until I’m finished ranting, and every piece of advice you have ever spoken to me is only said with the utmost respect and positivity.

I admire how you took a long look in the mirror, and whatever you didn’t like about yourself, you worked to change. It takes a strong person to look in the mirror, and I admire that you held that mirror up for me. You’ve challenged me to look at the ugly parts of myself, but what I love about you is you never thought they were ugly.

I took notes on the things you said to me. I left every conversation we had with so much knowledge about you, but also about myself and the way this world works. One of my favorite things you said to me was, “Make yourself the shirt.” The “shirt” we talked about was more so a metaphor for self-love — the more self-love you have, the more love resides in you to give toward others. You said, “Avery, let’s say you own a shirt business and someone comes in to buy a shirt, but all you have is the one on your body. The customer still wants that shirt, so you give it to them, and when they leave, yeah, you do feel happy that you could help them and supply them with what they needed, but it’s awkward because you’re standing in the cold without a shirt. So, the goal is to get good at making these shirts that people want, so when they come in, you have a supply in the back that you can give them. You are metaphorically profiting off this because you are still gaining that great feeling that comes with helping others and supplying love to them, while still having your own shirt and not depleting yourself of comfort and love that comes with that shirt being on your body. Essentially, the thing is, if you love yourself and you have enough love for yourself that you are overfilling, then you can share more without depleting your own self, which in turn leads to giving more.”

The lessons you taught me about self-love made me realize I’m a priority. All of us owe ourselves the love we so freely give out to everyone else, and if we all spent as much time in our relationships with ourselves as we do with others, it’d be a beautiful thing to watch. You so freely gave me the love I needed when I didn’t love myself, and you did it with no hesitation, even at times when you didn’t have a “shirt” of your own. I hope you know I’m here now; I have an endless supply of shirts in the back and I will always offer them to you. I hope you admire yourself as much as I have always admired you.

Love always,

Erick