This weekend was Salt Lake Comic Con and good times were had by all! The biggest take away this year was how inspiring and wonderful my SLCC family and community are. I think, beyond meeting some celebrities and going to some fun panels, being inspired by how others use their influence to change the world - it was the connections I made with locals that was my favorite part. I have been chatting/bantering/fangirling with a group of girls on facebook for a few weeks now and they are all hilarious. They are silly and intelligent and we all have good conversations and things in common. I never expected to find these connections here, so this is life changing!

I have always felt ostracized living in the bubble. I lived here as a little girl (until middle school) then returned as an adult. It's a different planet, socially. People tend to stick with their "cliques," they can be completely unwelcoming both knowingly and unknowingly, and it stings. I have found women to be the best at this. And many moms to be the very best at this. Now I'm not saying all women, or mothers in Utah are horrible people, it's just been my experience that there is a definite cultural inclusion/exclusion that takes place in social circles here unlike anything I have seen or felt living anywhere else in the world, even as a white foreigner in another country. I think people in general, living anywhere remain where they are comfortable and so it makes sense that the people we hang around fit right into that comfort zone. I guess I just needed to find "my people," people with whom I am able to feel and be my most genuine self. I love nerds. There is no better group of people.

Moving right along, the point of this post was to address self-love. We are the power in our universe. Nobody can make us feel inferior without our consent. But being labeled an outsider can hurt. So what do we do? What do I do? I start looking for other people like me and start my own circle - open and welcoming to all. I choose to recognize how awesome I am and the value I bring to the world and instead of burying it in order to appear more like other people, to decorate my sleeves with it and scream it to the world. We are beautiful and powerful human beings. Our individual "superpower" is that there is nobody else in the world quite like us. We cannot compare two things that are completely different. There is no criteria that would make enough sense to judge how either could be "better." We are tragically, wonderfully, change-the-world-in-our-own-way different and that is the greatest thing about us! Grateful for not fitting in where I don't belong. For grace. For forgiveness. For the choice to be happy and the opportunity to explore how I can best contribute to the world.

#fallbackintoshape2017 day 25.