TAKE PRIDE

Often we are exposed to situations which influence us to conform... but have you asked yourself, is this to my benefit? Will I blend in? Will I stand out? Why am I even conforming?

While change is good, one should take caution not to lose themselves in the process...

Growing up I always wanted to look like all the other pretty girls, I wanted to follow the latest trends so I could be seen and noticed in the crowd but why blend in when I could actually be myself and stand out??!

Yes, while resolutions might be a bit cliched, in 2016 I resolved to be myself, I resolved to accept and better appreciate what I couldn't change. I am an African woman, an African woman blessed with brown, golden skin and dark, rich, black, coarse and coiled hair. It it God and nature's gift to me and what I do with these gifts will be my gift to them. I choose to wear my 'blackness' with pride, I choose to wear my print with dignity, my hair, oh my black coarse hair, I choose to wear it in it's most perfect form, it's no shame, it is only who I am.

My resolution has come with such happiness, no longer do I succumb to blending in and following trends but I now more fully thrive in being myself because there is no other, this is my blueprint, one which can only be appreciated by others but not taken from me. Be BEaUtiful...(BE U)

I am Pam Nomakhosazana Lerato Nhlapo Torr...