On Being Vain // Vanity, Pride, and Humlity

Guys....vanity is my favorite sin.  I will be the first to admit to anyone that I am vain and I am proud.  I do however also consider myself a humble person.  How is that?  Aren't those two - vanity and humility - mutually exclusive? Nah, bro.  Here's why.

I think it is important for women to be proud of themselves and to be vain.  Post selfies everywhere, look at your naked ass in the mirror and live for it, buy clothes and wear clothes that make you feel damn good, put on that bright purple lip...why?  Because the world needs more of you!  

The world needs more women who don't apologize for themselves.  These women become role models for young girls who see their complexion, their hair color, their weight as something that defines them.  They see these things as something they have to live in the confines of and apologize for not being the opposite.  Society seems to chop us up and gives us back an idea of who we are supposed to be.  So for all of our lives we have to do something to make up for our shortcomings.  When we should be embracing ourselves - no matter what.

Now, don't get me wrong - we all feel the insecurities.  And the trick to being confident - at least for me - is to recognize that everyone is insecure so you should feel no better than anyone else.  That's weird right?  I think it's weird because we associate confidence sometimes with arrogance.  And it's not true.  I consider myself to be really confident yet in person I'm shy when meeting new people.  What makes me able to get in front of a crowd or muster up the courage to talk to someone is that they are just like me - they feel insecure about something.  Everyone is just like you and they probably are pretending they aren't.

Now I want to get to why I am also humble - while being proud and vain.  I'm the type of person to be the first to teach you what I know.  I remember in college I'd be the first to tell you how I did something because (one of my favorite quotes) A candle loses none of it's light by lighting another.  Being a confident yet inspiring person is the person I want to be remembered as.  I am slow to judge and a huge believer that everyone goes through life differently.  The reason I blog is because I want to be someone that others might be able to find and relate to....to know they aren't alone.  I often feel like I don't give the best advice because I know that everyone has to learn a lesson on their own.  I think back to all the advice I've ever asked for or been given and how, no matter what, I've had to learn on my own.

The biggest thing about being vain for me is that I am so proud of the person I've become and so happy to know that because of that, I will be proud of the person I will become.  I take responsibility for me and that's what makes me feel so great about being vain.

Another part of my vanity is that I can take pictures like the one above and still think I'm damn cute.  Also, I'm secure enough with my insecurities to show others my vulnerable self.  No make up, brushing my teeth, dirty mirror, Transformers tshirt.  I'm real...and I'm not afraid of it.  It's taken me a long while to really feel great when I'm not wearing make up.  Part of that has been taking care of my skin and finding new products that work for me and the other part of that is realizing I need to be happy in my own skin because it's where I'll be for the rest of my life.

This was sort of a weird post to write but I feel like I haven't been super, dooper honest on my blog in a long while and I just wanted to do something about that.  So go out there and post selfies.  Do it!

xoxo, Moe

ps. if you're vain too, follow me on instagram so I can look at how beautiful you are - @fivesixteenths