November 8: Purple Nails

 

 

Bullying is not funny. It is not cool. It is not right. And more importantly, it is not okay.
Most of us are, thankfully, residents of countries that support tolerance and many of our families have settled in these places simply for that reason. Generations later, it is our responsibility to perpetuate that message of tolerance across our new social platforms, including the internet.

As members of the nail polish blogging community, we all share a love of beauty, color, and lacquer. Other than that, we are remarkably different: from our race to our religion to our hair color...even to our polish application techniques. To marginalize anyone because of those differences is completely unacceptable and today I take a stand against that. I refuse to allow other people's view of "normal" dictate how I behave, believe, and blog.

In solidarity with a multitude of bloggers linked below, my purple manicure represents my proud commitment to the No H8 movement. Today, November 8, I dedicate my post to ending bullying of any kind and to encouraging diversity and imperfection among our colorful community.

 I've been thinking a lot about what I wanted to say in this post. I find it extremely ironic that I'm touching this subject during National Epilepsy Awareness Month, and the chosen colors for each of these causes just so happens to be purple.

By nature, I am very much the perfectionist. In a world of imperfection, I suppose it's no surprise because I also tend to see the good in everyone but I also tend to see the full potential in us all. As a kid, I was teased for the usual things. I was teased for the way I talked, because to this day I still a speech impediment. I was teased for being fat, when at the time, I was not. I am what most people would consider stocky. I was teased for being smart, but then I was also teased for not knowing what swear words and the finger meant. 

I mention being a perfectionist because it's important in understanding that for me, years after the bullying by others stopped, I now realize the worse bully among them all has truly been myself. I never really put all of those words by others out of my head, and I never really forgave myself for all of the silly little things I did wrong as a child and I still continue to mentally yell at myself for them and for not being perfect. Worse of all, I was diagnosed with epilepsy as a teenager which made this obsession with trying to be normal even worse.

 I reflect now on a lot of things I've said and done over the past few years and I've realized that the majority of these things were my own disillusions in my own head. I was taking my own insecurities, and putting the words in other peoples mouths. In short, by bullying myself, I was causing problems with myself, and all of those around me. 

Today, I need to figure out how to make that stop.

So while criticisms and mean words are most often thought of as external forces when applied to the concept of bullying, please remember to be kind to yourself as well. Terry Pratchett, one of my favorite authors, writes a lot about how words have power. I never really understood that concept until a few years ago. What he says is very true and sometimes it's the little negative thoughts we think each day that can hurt us the most.

I want to send a huge thank you to Julep for sending me three of the polishes I'm wearing today, in support of National Epilepsy Awareness Month: Renee, Charlotte, and Gayle.

Here's a quick breakdown of my manicure:
pinky finger: Julep Renee and Simple Pleasures polish labelled as Love.
ring finger: Julep Renee and WingDustCollections Save a Life
middle finger: Simple Pleasures Love and Julep Charlotte.
pointer finger: Julep Charlotte and Julep Gayle.
thumb: Julep Gayle and Wet 'n' Wild Precious Metals Zealous.
The ribbon on my ring finger was drawn on using Julep Charlotte.
 I topped over all of my nails using Tip Top Nail Chic Purple Haze. Thank you to Tip Top Nails South Africa for providing me with this nail polish for review. I will review it in full at a later date :)

Thank you also Jillian for suggesting I do gradient nails today... I had my manicure all planned out for tonight but then I didn't get my Julep November box in the mail as I expected (I should get it tomorrow, yay!) so I had to change up my plans a little bit.
 

 I'm going to end this with a quote from another of my favorite authors, Terry Goodkind, as well as pictures of today's manicure.

"We all can be only who we are, no more, no less."