Everything has a label. If you go to the supermarket, each product has a carefully selected label with the name of the product. When you purchase clothing, the label tells you exactly what you are getting. Prior to purchasing, we generally observe the product and use one or more of our five senses to determine if this product is the right fit for us. First, we will look at the product. Then, we will feel the product, sometimes on the inside and outside, to see if it is a sensation that we would like to have on our bodies if it will keep us warm or cold if it is flimsy. We will try the product and look at ourselves in the mirror, sometimes even walking around to get a feel of it, before making the final decision on whether we buy those ‘high waisted ripped denim shorts’ or not. But, at any moment during this process, we can decide that this item is not going to be the right fit for us. We get to decide to put the item back and proceed to look at a new item, something that may be more fitting and beneficial to us.
Well, why can’t we do this when we are labelling ourselves or with the labels that others give us?
What if I told you that you don’t have to accept the negative labels placed on you? What if I told you that, like the ‘high waisted ripped denim shorts’, you could choose whether you want to be labelled as the ‘fat girl’, ‘skinny boy’, the person who will ‘never be good enough’? Society will always throw labels at you; they will always try to fit who you are in a neat little package with a cute pink ribbon on the top as decoration to keep you placated. Ultimately, it is up to you whether you want to let these labels define you.
YOU have the choice of what you want to do with the label. YOU have the choice of accepting this label or putting it down. Only YOU can decide that this label is not you. Only YOU can decide what is going to limit you in life, and labels that others have placed on you, should not be one of those limits
‘I don’t care what people call me; labels have the negative value of making smaller boundaries for people’- Michael Graves.