Recently I had to give a speech about "beautiful words", and I thought I would share. I decided to go with three quotes/phrases that I had saved to my Pinterest board right around the time of my speech. These three phrases I truly consider to be "beautiful words". They are each somewhat inspirational and all thought provoking. They are beautiful to me because of the one theme they have in common: they all strive to inspire people to better themselves, believe in themselves, and be the best version of them self that they can be.

The first is a quote by Lana Del Rey, simply saying, "I believe in the person I want to become." I think this is beautiful because it is saying that you have to have faith in yourself and the future YOU that you can one day become. Believing in yourself is one of the most important things we as people can do, in my opinion, so this quote really speaks to me and inspires me to have faith in what and who I can become.

The next is a quote that says, "Never be defined by your past, it was just a lesson, not a life sentence." I do not know the author of this quote but I love it because it promotes self betterment and is telling people not to be so hard on themselves. The past in is the past, and whoever you were before, and wherever you were and whatever you were doing, does not have to be the same way all of your life. It's never too late to start over.

Lastly, I have another quote by an author unknown, saying, "'How does one become a butterfly?' She asked. He replied, 'You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar.' " This quote is cute to me and I love it because it's talking about being brave enough to make a big change that is going to eventually benefit you in the long run. We're all a little afraid of change, and this is telling us, basically, that we'll never get what we want or where we want to be if we aren't willing to give all we have to get there.

These three phrases are all beautiful to me, really because of the meaning behind each of them. They are all inspiring growth and self-betterment. College students especially need to hear things like this as we struggle with what we want to do or who we want to be in life. I hope those of you reading have gotten something out of these phrases, and maybe you think they are beautiful words as well.