That one little thing....

Ok, so starting very early in life, girls start to compare themselves to other girls. They start to notice things like another girl's cute dress or her pretty bracelet or her cute pink toenails. I've already noticed this trend amongst my four-year-old and her little friends at 'school'. In fact, it's for this very reason that I was almost late to work not once but twice last week-- Libby just HAD to find her pink 'diamond' necklace before we could possibly leave the house.

Well, in the midst of comparing ourselves to others, we start to realize there are things we just don't LOVE about ourselves. In fact, I believe that as the time passes, many girls will come to focus on that one little thing they dislike the MOST about how they were made. For me, this is.....no, not my height. I've come to accept the fact that God wanted me to be short, and I am completely fine with the fact that I'm three inches shy of needing a booster seat. No, for me the only thing I just simply don't like about myself is my hair. Stuck somewhere between straight and curly, it has a mind of its own, and to be completely honest-- we just don't jive. Although my mother tells me time after time how beautiful it is, how much she loves it, etc. (aren't moms always great at that sort of thing?), I think this is somewhat of a grass-is-always greener scenario. You can try to sugarcoat it all you like, but the point is- I'm just not a fan.

Well, I've come to realize in my twenty-nine years that in order to be happy, we have to find ways to work around those bumps in the road. So, in order to settle a peace treaty between the two of us, I've decided to make some lemonade from the rather unpleasant lemons I've been dealt in the hair department. So, for the second time in my life, I donated eight inches of my hair last week to help an adult woman who has lost her hair due to breast cancer. I donated through an organization called Beautiful Lengths, sponsored by Pantene. And this time, I donated with a former student turned friend, which made this lemonade twice as sweet. :)

And the responses I've gotten this time have so closely reflected the ones I got last time.....wasn't it hard to cut off all of you hair? This seems to be the question on everyone's mind. Well, the answer is: no! Not one little bit! In fact, the hard part for me is waiting for my hair to get long enough TO donate. This go round took me about two years of growing to reach the donate mark. The cutting to me is the best part. It feels really good to know that I'm doing something to bring help to someone else, someone who is undoubtedly hurting and suffering. The best part to me is that it's someone I don't know and will probably never meet. I love the idea of helping to make the day of a complete stranger. I also love the fact that one girl's 'junk' can become another girl's 'treasure'.