Face Value

School has been somewhat stressful lately, hence the lack of blog posts. I stayed up until 2 am last night doing a stupid assignment I thought I could do in one night, and while 2 am is not unusual for many college students, I am one who needs her sleep. Because of this, I don't look my best this morning, and I resorted to my Dealbreakers tee shirt and one of my grandpa sweaters. I was also late to class, which didn't bother me too much, as it is a class that I don't have much care for.

When I got to class I was about five minutes late, and everyone had already turned in their assignments at the front. I had to make the walk of shame to the front to turn in my paper as the teacher was still talking. I started making my way to the front, frustrated with how badly the last 12 hours has gone, and really not looking forward to everyone staring at me in my beautiful outfit as I walk to my seat in the very back of the room. But as I turned around instead of being filled with dread, I felt surprisingly free and happy. As I walked back to my seat it was kind of like one of those slow motion moments in a movie where the main character is having a large amount of profound thoughts in about thirty seconds. This has never happened to me. In this probably five seconds it took for me to return to my seat, I realized one great thing. I didn't care. I didn't care what these 40 people thought as they stared at my  frumpy sweater, messed up hair, and ratty chucks. They were in fact all staring at me and I stared back.

This was such a random experience that I am completely thankful for. In that moment I felt empowered, free, and overall awesome. It was a great reminder from God that my value was never and will never be found in other people and what they think when they look at me. It's nice to be reminded that I can look like absolute crap but still be loved beyond all comprehension.

To change the subject, I enjoyed a very windy photo shoot yesterday with my beautiful friend Nyadoar.

We had a lot of fun battling the wind that was threatening to literally knock us off these rocks. There was a moment when Nyadoar was sitting and I was standing and the biggest gust of wind I have ever experienced rushed over us. I had to push with my legs in order to not be knocked over, but it was simply amazing.