The world screams that I am not good enough

That my body, my voice, my personality, my creativity,

Are unacceptably flawed

That I do not deserve to be here

And yet

I am here

I dare to breathe in a world that disapproves of me

I dare to exist simply as myself

And not as a shiny, censored version of me

Imperfectly perfect,

Demanding nothing more than authenticity from myself and those around me

Beautifully ugly,

Struggling through the challenges and obstacles that separate me from my dreams

Some people only want to see the ugly

Because anything else is a threat to their beauty

I will not play that game

Because I don’t understand

Why beautiful things must be compared and ranked,

Stacked against each other to see which one is best

Why they can’t simply exist in the same world side by side

But I choose to let it go

Let them play their games

I dare to live without comparing myself

Without feeling inferior or superior

I can’t say that I’m unafraid

I can’t say that I don’t still drown in my imperfections sometimes

The world will always scream that I am not good enough

That I am unacceptably imperfect

And once upon a time,

I even joined it in tearing myself down

But I am running out of time for apologies

And sorry is not a word that I wish to be remembered by 

I know that I have flaws

I have seen them deep inside of me as well as on the surface

I have fought with them

And worked around and through them

Until I know them by heart

And I have come to realize that I will always be flawed in one way or another

I am human

But I am working hard to be the best me that I possibly can be

My perfection lies not in a lack of flaws

But in a presence of strength

To hear my critics

To see my mistakes

To accept my flaws

And overcome them.