Imagine a situation where you are faced with an opponent, someone opposite from you, staring you down. Looking into your eyes but pretty much into your soul. They see you. They know you.

They are you.

It's a mirror.

We face this scenario every time we look into that shiny, chrome, reflective surface. But how often do we actually look at it? At ourselves? Do we ever look past the surface to see what lies underneath all the outer stuff that doesn't really matter one bit? When we're 80 years old and sitting on front porches in those cute porch swings or sitting in a la-z-boy by the fire, we surely won't be reminiscing on the clothes we wore in college. Or how we did our hair or which brand of shoes we wore because they were in style that year. More likely, we'll be thinking about who we were. What kind of people we were, deep down, as we walked into this crazy world without having any inkling of what the future would hold.

When I'm sitting on that porch, maybe with a sweet dog at my feet, and my cute husband (if you're out there, man, hi nice to meet you) on the swing next to me, I hope that I will be proud of who I was. Of what type of person I was and who I became. Though the common phrases yolo and no ragrets (lol) are life mottoes, they also aren't always leading us towards the best decisions, I'm sure. No ragrets doesn't make up for the fact that you got into a twitter fight, sorry. It's always better to be kind. Kind to others, kind to yourself. Kindness truly makes the world go 'round, not that weird gravitational pull or whatever, obviously.

At the end of the day, do you like who you are? If not, that's okay. There is time to become who you are capable of becoming. We all can work towards being kinder people, and towards making sure the world is a better place when we leave it. When you look in the mirror, I hope you see someone strong and passionate and kind. I hope you smile at that reflection, flash a big thumbs up, and brave the day.