24 days 'til 45

I love the lyrics of the Mary J. Blige song, "Work What You Got." I think every middle school girl should listen to this song.

These are the words I like the most:

I just wanna be myself
Don't sweat girl be yourself
Follow me
Follow me
Follow me
Girl be yourself
That's why I be myself
And I'm gonna love it

Let em get mad
They gonna hate anyway
Don't you get that?
Doesn't matter if you're going on with their plan
They'll never be happy
Cause they're not happy with themselves

I'm talking bout things that I know

It's okay show yourself some love

Don't worry bout who's saying what
It's gonna be fine
Work what you got

I see so many girls going through such hard times during middle school. Girls can be so mean to each other and to themselves. I used to just love myself when I was in elementary school. I liked my hair, I never worried that I was a nerd who played the violin, I danced around people and didn't worry that I had steps wrong. Then I got to junior high and everything seemed to change. Some people seemed to be doing fine, but I wasn't. One of my closest friends started hanging out with a different group of girls, and I heard them talking about her clothes behind her back. I told her and she said she didn't care, but I was the one she stopped talking to.

I was not bullied or talked about really, but my childhood friends were moving in different directions, choosing cliques that I really did not fit into. I found friends (lots of them), but I always felt on the edge of everything until high school. Even then, I never felt that same "I'm wonderful" feeling. That's too bad because I think we all need that.

I think we should find a way to spare all girls the pain of feeling less than.  See what Mary says:

Theres so many-a girls
I hear you been running
From the beautiful queen
That you could be becoming
You can look at my palm
And see the storm coming
Read the book of my life
And see I've overcome it
Just because the length of your hair ain't long
And they often criticize you for your skin tone
Wanna hold your head high
Cause you're a pretty woman
Get your runway stride home
And keep going
Girl live ya life

We should have runway stride day at school. Play this song and just let everyone strut for a while.

That would be a great flash mob.