Those of you who have been following my blog from the beginning know that it didn’t start out as a body image blog. It started out as a creative outlet for me to express my frustrations with working in the broadcast news industry. All of my coworkers who read it found it extremely enjoyable and supremely relatable.
All of my coworkers, that is, except for one.
That one coworker? Well. I can’t say anything nice about her, so I won’t say anything about her at all. (Thanks for the moral upbringing, Bambi!) But, upon finding my blog, she had a lot of things to say about me and none of them were nice. So, naturally, she pulled me into a closed edit bay and barked all of those horrible things at me while I stared at her in disbelief and sobbed.
After this confrontation I crumbled into a thousand pieces. My fragile self-worth fell in on itself. Coworker thinks I’m a horrible person? I thought. Well, then I must be a horrible person! At the time, I never thought I’d see the good in that situation. I thought it would forever remain a painful memory, another tell-tale entry in my Failodex.
The truth of the matter, though? That’s not what happened. While there was, no doubt, a world of trouble that came from that awful edit bay fall out, a whole heap of good came from it, too. That confrontation was the catalyst to me changing the focus of my blog to self-image and being a small part of a huge self-love revolution taking place around me. Because of that, I will be forever grateful to Coworker, no matter how horrible her opinion of me was/is.
There is a long-standing saying about opinions that, as crass at it is, is irrefutably accurate:
Opinions are like [butt] holes. Everyone’s got one and thinks everyone else’s stinks.
I don’t know who the genius was to first make this comparison, but he or she hits the nail right on the head. And, not only does everyone have an opinion, but everyone has an opinion about you. (Oh, and if you think it’s bad now, just wait until you get pregnant. My lifestyle choices and subsequent parenting methods have been criticized by countless people so badly already and my child isn’t even visible yet.)
At any rate, as much as I love the above quote about opinions, I’d like to modify it just a little bit.
TODAY’S SELF-LOVE TIP: OPINIONS ARE LIKE HEARTS.
It’s no secret that Coworker’s opinion of me was, dare I say, less than favorable. But don’t I know myself better than she does? Shouldn’t my opinion of myself reign supreme?
Yes. Yes it should. And the same goes for you.
Even though everyone has an opinion about you, the truth is that your opinion about yourself is the only one that matters. So the next time someone says something nasty about you, just remember this:
fueled by diet coke 
I LOVE this.
hi friend. good stuff! i read your latest post (this one) from facebook, went to comment and realized i was still logged into my own wordpress site. i’ve been running a secret blog of my own. shhh. don’t tell. initially, i was going to sign out to comment this, bc i am writing about personal stuff (who isn’t) under a pseudonym and most of the people in my life don’t know my new blog exists! but, i want you to, especially after this latest post, because valuing my own opinion, becoming sure of myself, is something i am working on with my therapist and something i am blogging about. thank you for this! ❤ you…a.
LOVE YOU GIRL, and love your blog! your secret’s safe with me. you are so wonderful just the way you are! ❤ everything about you is bitchin'!
Girl, you have NO idea how timely this is for me (actually you do, since you’ve been helping me every step of the way!). I can’t wait to see you in March. You are inspired. Thanks so much.
I can’t believe that someone would go out of their way to criticize you. That person sure is lucky I wasn’t around because I definitely would have ripped her a new one. Everyone is entitled to an opinion but have a social responsibility to present it nicely or not at all. You are doing a great thing Lindsay and no one can ever take that away from you without your permission. You keep on preachin’ girl!