Just Be Thankful For Being You

A simple task was asked. What are you thankful for? Do you really want to know the first thought that appeared in my mind? Or do you want to know the other thoughts that appeared in my mind after I really thought about this question? I prefer to be 100% authentic when writing so I’m going to share with you my last thankful thought when I heard this question on what I'm thankful for which something that everyone should be more than grateful for.

I’m Just Grateful for being me

This should have been the first thing I thought about if I’m being asked what I’m thankful for. To be honest the least important circumstances in my life that I am very much thankful for are not as important as being thankful for myself. The truth is I thought about all those unimportant factors first before taking the time to actually reflect and appreciate the individual am I. I’ve never had the time to admire my greatness and to acknowledge the amazing person within me. So here’s my chance. I have finally had the opportunity to sit down with myself and briefly discuss what I’m most thankful for being me.

For Not Looking like Everybody Else

Since I first entered high school back in 2012 I’ve always looked at myself every day in the mirror wishing that I could change my facial appearance in some sort of way. Throughout my school years, I was mocked and laughed at for my weird stares and chubby cheeks. It's definitely lacked my confidence and made me wish that had never been created this way. It also didn’t help seeing so many Instagram influencers looking perfect and gorgeous with no imperfections and then coming home every day comparing myself to a whole world of perfect people.

But throughout the years I’ve surrounded myself with good people that appreciate and love me for who I am inside and out. Surrounding myself with positivity and love has made me wake up every day appreciating my differences and loving my baby face with my chubby cheeks. I’ve also never been a massive fan of my body as whenever the new year comes around I always tend to go on diet to lose some belly fat. But this year there is going to be no such thing as dieting on my resolution. I appreciate all my fat, curves, and spots that are on my body. For the first time in my life, I appreciate my young face being perfectly matched with my curvy body that God has created. So from this day forward, I’m glad I don’t look like everybody else, I’m glad I have a cute face and I’m proud of the way I've been molded and shaped over the years. The best part is not everybody admires the way I look, and that’s even better because it means I’m different!

For being super creative

What is talent? More importantly what is your talent?

Many people will think that talent has to be you physically doing something with your body such as singing, dancing, painting, or a sport. But having a talent can just be being good at brainstorming or even listening to others speak. Yes, listening is indeed a talent. I don’t mean to brag, but I have many talents such as making patisserie, photography, writing (which I’m working on), organizing events, drawing, making music and the list will go on. Out of all the talents that I have the one talent that I’m super grateful for is just being creative.

I tend to come up with ideas that have never been heard before for a project or an assignment but the problem is sometimes I will have too many creative ideas that I struggle just picking one. But if you give a task or project I can easily come up with 10 different ideas in 10 minutes and at least 3 of them will be unique or groundbreaking ideas that no one has thought of. I've always had a creative mindset as I'm always thinking outside of the box whereas most people will come up with basic suggestions or ideas that don't bring much excitement. A clear example of this is during lockdown back in spring in the UK and everyone was housebound with nothing to do. I was getting sick and tired of my friends calling me 24/7 to discuss boys, outfits, makeup, and the usual girly conversations. Whereas my other friends would just send me the odd text here and there to briefly explain to me what they watched on their Netflix binge-fest every day. There's nothing with a good Netflix binge day but every day? Whereas for me I was able to come up with the most unusual things to do every day that lead me to make it to my first business venture this year, which leads nicely on to my next point.

Unlike most people, I think way outside the box. I go to levels where my imagination for the impossible makes things possible and I'm glad to have such a distinctive mindset. Without having my creativity I don't think I would have been the entrepreneur that I am today and never would have been the artistic person that everyone admires me for.

For Being Hands-on

Britney Spears opens the first verse to one of her songs by saying " there's only two types of people in the world, the one's that entertain and the one that observe". I cannot disagree with this saying as you have the people that dream of everything they want to happen (they observe) and the ones that make everything happen (they entertain). I'm proud enough to say that fall into the category of the ones that entertain. As I mentioned above, without my creativity I wouldn't be the entrepreneur that I am today as my creativity drives me into making things actually happening rather than imagining.

This year I've come up with the most creative ideas for a new eCommerce store but I had to only choose one to start off with. The idea that I chose to pursue was not the easiest idea to bring to a particular market and it's not the cheapest to produce either. I started this project back in April with hardly any money, to begin with, but at that moment I chose mind over matter. Now coming up to the end of the year I don't know how I've done it but I have a full prototype of the product for the eCommerce store that is ready to go into bulk production. If I chose matter over mind and worried about the little money I had to produce the product, then I would have never learned the skills that I've learned that most people lack in, I would have never gained more confidence in trusting myself and I would still been the same shy person I've always have been. But most importantly I would have been an observer, not an entertainer. I never appreciated this power that I have up until now and I wouldn't have been taught this skill if it wasn't for my Grandparents who encouraged me from a young age to do things others dream about.

For Having Bushy Hair

Going back to appearances and the confidence I have for my body, the one other feature that makes me different and unique is my bushy, afro hair. Within my friendship circles, a wide variety of my friends are from different corners of the world which is one other thnakful thought I have as well. One of my friends is from Thailand, another one is from Sri Lanka, another from France and another from Australia. When I first met all of them, the first compliments that they all said about me was based on my hair. My friend from Thailand loves how my hair feels and looks, she even says sometimes she wishes she has hair like mine because of the soft texture.

It's hard to believe that I've never been so kneen on my hair as I have fragile kinky curly hair that can easily grow and break off. So you must imagine how hard it is to manage my bushy hair, especially at night. But no matter how long or short, whether it breaks or not I'm thankful that I have beautiful afro hair that sets me apart from the crowd as I love styling it in different ways (my creativity unleashes when styling) so I can look different from others. However, some people prefer me to have straight hair so it doesn't look big all the time which is a shame as that's the whole point. But I tend find that the people who love and appreciate me the most are the ones that encourage me to embrace my natural hair rather than the ones that don't or maybe there just jealous that don't have puffy textured hair like mine. But whether someone likes it or not it doesn't matter. I like and that's all that matters.

My various attributes and diffenences is the most thankful thought that I have of myself. After all these years of wishing and hoping that I wanted to look like X, Y, Z or be just like person A, B, C I finally have the courage to the say I'm proud of who I am and I want this appreciation of myself to be an encouragement for you to be grateful of who you are. If you feel as if you don't fit amoungst the crowd of people or were not made to think like everybody else then congratulations you were made to stand out from the crowd. You have every reason to wake up in morning being grateful that you woke up this way by loving every single aspect of yourself. So if you haven't thought of being thankful for yourself then I would encourge to take the time to look in the mirror and be thankful for what's in front of you. Take time to admire all your talents, beauty spots, eyes, freckles, mind, taste you name it. Just be thankful for being you.

Earlier I mentioned other thoughts that I thought about when being asked this question so I thought I might as well share some of those thoughts.

Other things I'm thankful for:

• Having a job during Covid
• Having food on the table everyday
• Having the most amazing friends
• Being grateful for be healthy and strong
• For my amazing family that gets me through the tough times
• Being able to study french patesserie
• Having a roof over my head
• Being the youngest sibling
• Living near parks and green spaces
• Having access to the internet
• Being able to reach out to others in times of need
• Knowing that I will always have a support network

Just remember to be thankful for what's in your life right now and whether you believe in the power of the universe or not, you will always recieve greater rewards for the grattitude you show for yourself and others.