Customize Yourself

 

We customize our cars, our houses, our water bottles, our online profiles, our offices... everything around us gets that special touch to identify it as ours. So why not our bodies? I mean, we start young with developing our own clothing style. Then it's hairstyle and jewelry. Maybe hair color, hair cut, body piercings.

I've always hated the idea that my body is just what I'm stuck with. But given the time, and the willingness to pay the price - money, pain, etc. - we can modify out bodies in the direction of where we want them to be. 

There's the expensive options - cosmetic surgery, like breast reduction or augmentation, nose jobs, laser hair removal or electrolysis, tattoos, braces or dentures. But there's also more gradual, less expensive options. Working out, taking hormones or medicine, ear gauging.

And then the temporary things, like clothing choices, false fangs/teeth, dying your hair (or for that matter, your skin), colored contacts.

Some of these things I'm willing to do what it takes to change my appearance. Others I'm not. But there's no reason why I have to accept my body the way it is. And neither do you.

---

"What would you say to a younger version of yourself?"

Embrace the weird. Everyone doesn't need to like you. The people that matter will value your weirdness and echo it back to you - those are your people. Don't try so hard to fit others' expectations, even when they are people that love and support you. You don't have to look like or act like your peers. Make your presentation whatever your want it to be. Dye your hair, cut it off, wear all the jewelry or none. Wear the clothes that feel like home. Decorate your body in any way that makes you happy. You may stand out - do it. You'll be advertising who you are to everyone, and that makes it safer for others to do the same. Support each other in being weird.

And yes, I recognize and enjoy how much these originally-separate statements all go back to reinforce each other.