Every Body's Beautiful

Remember how freaked out I was about wearing a bikini on vacation the first time? I had myself all worked up, psyched out.

There really was this fear in my brain that I had to get over. I had to stop being afraid that everyone would look at me and judge me. I had to stop being afraid of the outside world looking in and I had to stop being afraid to let the inside world look out.

Now that I have three vacations under my bikini bottoms, I have a new perspective.

This trip, I wore my cover-up once.

Once in five days.

Why? Because it's a drag to be all covered up on the beach. And so completely unnecessary.

It's the freaking beach. Everyone, and I mean everyone, wears a bikini. People of all shapes and sizes. People of all ages and ethnicities. People of all confidence and fitness levels.

75-year-old, gray-haired grandma from Canada? You betcha. 30-year-old, chain-smoking, kid-yelling, cornrowed mom from some Eastern European country? Yup. Saggy, baggy, dimply mom of teens? Sure!

By the end of the trip, the really large American women with those suits that have the big skirts attached were the ones that looked out of place to me. Not because they were large. But because they had so MUCH fabric on that it looked odd. Less fabric would have seemed so much more appropriate.

But here's the kicker. I didn't see one single perfect body.

Not one.

I saw a too-skinny Brazilian. I saw young and old moms with pooches and love handles. I saw sagging butts and even saggier boobs.

And they were all beautiful in their own way. They were more beautiful when they carried themselves with confidence and grace.

I think that's a nice lesson.