A Raging Bonfire

August 08, 2017

Lauren Galley, 22, was born and raised in Texas. She currently attends the Sam Houston State University’s Clinical Psychology Master’s Program. As an award winning teen mentor and President of the nonprofit Girls Above Society, Lauren is dedicated to empowering young girls to be confident and digitally smart as they navigate the tough pressures of today’s media-driven society. She shares her powerful voice on a variety of platforms as a TEDx speaker, Amazon Best Selling Author and the United Nations as a Youth Delegate working towards gender equality and the Sustainable Development Goals of 2030. According to Lauren: Family, Friends, Books, Kindness, Traveling & Matthew Gubler are the key ingredients for happiness.

There is a glow in you that sparkles out across all that you are and all that you do.
It is in each of your freckles, it is in each of your desires, it is mirrored in all that you say and do.
Your appearances, your movements, your expressions, your desires
these makings are created in harmony with who you truthfully are
and your specific steadfastness.
That glow is your exclusive “oomph,” and when you are not respecting your exclusive “oomph”
it can feel uncomfortable to be praised for it.
What if Shakespeare had overlooked his desire and mastermind for script?
Or da Vinci had believed his incapability to complete a piece of art
destined he was not a praiseworthy artist?
What you say to yourself regarding the value of your own exclusive characters and gifts
has a deeper effect on what you can do with your future.
The optimistic air shaped by a compliment, if we permit ourselves to breathe it in
can prevailingly raise our spirits and brighten our glow.
Maya Angelou said it best: others will not remember what you did or said
they will remember how you made them feel.
In the same way, a praiseworthy comment given to you is about so much more than you.
It is an effort to acknowledge you for the way you have made someone else feel.
A compliment is somebody presenting gratitude for that unique, exclusive glow inside you.
Turn that glow into a raging bonfire. Embrace your exclusive “oomph.”