I Used to Care but Now I Don't.

“I used to care but now I don't.”

That seems to be a relatively new challenge on TikTok. Now I don't exactly use TikTok, but I do scroll through the Facebook Shorts frequently and I've seen a few videos of it. And you know what?

It's beautiful. It's real. It's authentic.

It's people inspiring people and showing the world that they no longer let what other people think, bother them. It's people revealing their true authentic selves without a care in the world! It's people rising up from the ashes of negativity and criticism and giving all the naysayers the finger and declaring to the world "I'm going to be who I truly am and I don't give a damn what you think! I love me!" How amazing is that?

Much like the people who don't care what others think anymore! I feel that to my core, dude. All my life through my childhood, teen years, and early 20's, I cared. I cared if I had the "cool" stuff. I cared about the way I dressed and about my hair being fixed and my makeup. I was so self-conscious that I hardly went anywhere without makeup, not even to Walmart. I was disgusted when I would look in the mirror at my ordinary naked face.

But now, I don't care. I and my husband have been together for almost five years. When we first got together when I was 25, I was still caring. But one day, he told me something that NO GUY HAS EVER told me before. "You're so much more beautiful without makeup."

WOW! If that doesn't scream wedding bells! I was shocked! After that, I slowly stopped wearing makeup. It took some getting used to, but eventually, I got used to it and stopped completely cringing when I looked in the mirror.

These days, I just don't worry about my outer appearance so much. As long as my hair doesn't look like Albert Einstein’s, and my clothes cover my body parts, I'm fine! What others think about me these days doesn't matter to me anymore. My hubby thinks I'm beautiful and tells me I'm beautiful all the time!

I'm slowly learning to love myself. It's truthfully harder than ever to love myself after having two kids and being almost sixty pounds heavier than I used to be. Stretch marks weave their way around my stomach as a testimony of life-giving power. I have cellulite on my rear and my thighs as evidence that I have emotionally indulged in food one too many times.

To top everything off I turned 30 this year. The age that was usually considered "old" for a woman. I can't help but have that sense of "the best years are behind me" although I know that's not true. I'm going to try and make the absolute most out of my 30s. Get in the best shape of my life, learn a new skill, maybe even start a career. And the best part about growing older? The older you get, the less you care!

So to all my fellow ladies, I just want you to know, you're beautiful. With or without makeup. Don't care about what others think! Be yourself! Love yourself! Enjoy your life to the fullest because life passes so quickly! At the end of the day, as long as you can look in the mirror and love what you see, that's what truly matters.

If the world doesn't like it, flip your hair, give them a nice big smile, and simply tell them, "I used to care but now I don't" and then strut your stuff away from their negativity because you don't need that in your life!

Thank you for reading!

Stay beautiful ya'll!