In the beginning of my freshman year of college I woke up every morning, washed and fixed my hair, and put on pretty much a whole face of makeup. I never asked myself why I did this. It was just something that I did and expected myself to always do. There were days where I would hit snooze 1 too many times so I was forced to put my dirty hair in a ponytail and barely get foundation and mascara on before I had to leave to get to class on time. On those days I basically avoided any mirrors I possibly could. I didn’t feel good about myself at all. I felt that if I didn’t have on makeup and if my hair was pulled up with a cute headband that I just was not pretty. Talk about killing any self-esteem I had.

Flash forward a year to the beginning of my sophomore year and the first couple of weeks started out the same, putting myself completely together for classes. But then I just kind of quit wearing so much. Most days I still put on foundation and on the rare occasion mascara. But everything else is gone on the average day of class and extracurriculars. Granted it started out because I was too lazy and tired to wake up every morning and put in so much effort. But I continued to not wear much makeup because for any of you who know me I really value my sleep.

At the beginning I looked in the mirror and didn’t feel too great about myself. But then something pretty awesome happened. I began to see myself in a whole new way. I wouldn’t look in the mirror anymore and see a girl who didn’t put makeup on that morning. I would see a pretty girl who is working her butt off to be successful at one of the top colleges in the nation. I grew to feel really good about myself both with and without makeup. I no longer put my value on how much product I put on my face. I value myself because when I look in the mirror I see a young, strong, independent woman that God created for a special purpose.

Now don’t get me wrong there is absolutely nothing wrong with wearing makeup. Some days I do put on a little more, and I still do all of my makeup when I’m going out to dinner or special events. Makeup is pretty great as long as it’s adding to your beauty, not covering it up so much that you start to feel that the real value comes from the product. Because that’s never the case. Makeup can do some amazing things, but I’ve come to the point in my life where I want to get to know the people underneath the makeup. I want to see deep inside of you and what makes you a wonderful person. So don’t be afraid to be confident in yourself without makeup. Becoming confident in myself and my talents was one of the most liberating and encouraging things I’ve done in college so far.