By Ke’Ana Lampkins
As we sped past Black History Month, Women’s History, Month, and further into one of the craziest years many of us have witnessed, I think it’s important to celebrate who we are and where we’ve been. Yes, we’ve all had to do one of those projects, researching important figures. Michelle Obama, Oprah, Serena and Venus Williams, and Beyonce. These are all black women who rock, and who exude excellence. They’re worthy of celebration, but so are we.
Many of us are not famous singers or the 44th president’s wife. But we are amazing, creative, and standing in our own right. It’s easy to compare ourselves to others. Unfortunately, our media has created this unhealthy culture among women, making it second nature to compare ourselves with others. Although it’s pretty far-fetched in most cases, we still compare ourselves with celebrities. Most of all, we compare ourselves with our friends and people we don’t even know.
While It’s easy to compare our achievements to others, the simple fact is that everyone is on their journey. No one has the same story, no matter how similar yours may be. Everyone has had their own set of parents, their childhood and adolescence to experience, and their own set of setbacks and obstacles to face. It’s not your place to pit yourself against someone else, not knowing what they had to go through to get there. It’s also not fair to your story and your journey.
If comparing ourselves to others isn’t bad enough, we compare ourselves to ourselves. I know that sounds a little crazy, but we do it. We compare ourselves to our past experiences in how we may have handled them then vs how we do now. We compare ourselves to expired expectations and goals. We hold on to things that we feel that we should already be doing. We often only focus on where we’re going and not where we’ve been, what we’ve accomplished, and how great we currently are.
Black girl, you are amazing! You deserve to celebrate yourself because you’ve come from whatever has been an obstacle in your life–and you survived! We have a way of selling ourselves short, especially our accomplishments. We compare where we are to where we want to be and somehow all the things we persevered through aren’t huge feats at all. But they are huge! Think of something you made it through, that you fought to achieve, or even something that almost broke you. What if you hadn’t won that battle?What if you had not achieved that seemingly small feat? You wouldn’t be who or where you are now.
So celebrate yourself! You deserve it. You are worthy of a round of applause. Because you’re still standing, and you’re still moving forward despite what may have tried to break you.
Ke’Ana Lampkins is a contributing writer for The Pedestal Project, LLC. Ke’Ana is a Christian, wife, and mother dedicated to empowering young girls and women through counseling, mentorship, and education. Connect with her on Instagram @Beautifully_Yanni.
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