Be Yourself!

Many years ago, while I was pretty young & before I decided to study law, I did some work experience with a barrister. I remember having a debate with a relative beforehand about what I should wear as I didn't want to wear the bog standard smart clothes. My argument was it shouldn't matter how you look but society is such that it does matter! We are made to feel like we have to conform with the norm. So I bought some new, very respectable outfits..

People are judged straight away on their appearance & anyone who dares to be different is often frowned upon. Which really irritates me. I have probably always been quite lacking in confidence. People may find that hard to believe as they always think I am really outgoing & don't believe me when I say I used to have terrible shyness. Shyness so bad that when I was very young it used to get me into trouble!  I still think I'm shy but people laugh when I say it. I have never particularly liked myself either. I don't think any female is ever 100% happy with how they look but we can make ourselves feel better by wearing the things we like. If we dare!

I think the problem is a lot of people are too conscious of what others think & are more bothered about whether they will be stared at if they look a bit different to everyone else. I used to be the same. When I first began working & earning money, I would often spend my lunch hours in the shops buying clothes.  I used to really like H&M & spent a lot of time there. I would buy whatever I liked but didn't always dare to wear some of the stuff out if it was a bit unusual. The whole confidence thing again.

As I got a bit older (& perhaps wiser) I began to realise that if I liked something then I didn't really care if people pulled a face at it & if I wanted to wear it & felt good in it then I damn well would!  I do like on trend clothes but I am often drawn to stuff that is a bit quirky. I went shopping with one of my carers recently & she just laughed at some of the stuff I took to try on. She changed her mind about them when she saw them on but it really didn't bother me that she didn't like them. This is a jacket I bought.. Mary Berry chic is all the rage don't you know!

My fairly recent addiction to hair accessories has also given me a lot more confidence. The other members of the Crown & Glory Glitterati group which I am part of (link here) are very cool & a pretty amazing bunch of girls. I have hair envy of a lot of them who have various brightly coloured locks & it has inspired me to do something a bit different with mine so watch this space...

Chances are if you see me these days I will have some sort of accessory in my hair & I may well be wearing something that the people in TOWIE wouldn't approve of!!

When you become poorly you kind of lose your identity a bit as you become "that person with M.E". Which I hate. So you need to make sure you do whatever you can to feel good about yourself. BE YOURSELF! And on that note I shall go & adorn my head with one of my many bits of pretty...

Ali
ME Mummy A
xx