A month ago, I gave my first speech on body love. Actually, I was asked to talk about being an empowered woman. I won't lie, I was flattered to be thought of as a women of empowerment especially since as of late I feel like a woman just trying to survive the day. I'm not where I imagined myself being two years after getting my Master's degree and my finances are still iffy at times.
So since, I didn't feel very empowered I wasn't sure what to really talk about. Also, my focus has moved from empowerment verses oppression to body image. I've been reading a lot on society's perception of fat and beauty, being healthy at any size, and body acceptance/love. After a lot of procrastination and discussion with a co-worker I decided to go ahead and talk about body love/positive.
The whole time I was doing my outline I kept thinking that I was going in the wrong direction, that this wasn't what they wanted to hear. These ladies are in college looking to professional women for guidance on how to become empowered in their careers and here I was giving them advice on how to feel beautiful. However, I kept going because my message was the only one I had to give.
I titled my speech Empowerment through Beauty except I never really felt like I got to the empowerment through beauty part. I mainly focused on how to change your perceptions of beauty by surrounding your self with images that more closely match what you look like, pushing yourself to accept compliments, urging friends to not talk about themselves or others negatively, and not to talk badly about yourself.
After I gave my speech, I was relieved to have gotten applause instead of food thrown at me. And the best part happen when everyone started to disperse. Several women came up to me to compliment and thank me!
So, the lesson here is to go with your gut, heart, feeling, whatever. I went with my gut, shared a message that I felt was important even though I mind said it was wrong.
No comments:
Post a Comment