What Defines Me?

Today as I combed through my morning "news", I came across a TEDX talk given by Lizzie Velasquez, who has been labeled the “World’s Ugliest Woman.” Lizzie, one of three known people worldwide suffers from Neonatal Progeroid Syndrome, which prevents her from gaining weight, has caused blindness in one eye, accelerated signs of aging and quite frankly finds her not fitting in with the societal “norm.” Today, this valiant 24-year-old woman is speaking out about her struggle with the outside world's perception and the brutality of descriptions across internet platforms, coming to her own sense of self and what defines her as a human being. Not her looks, not her rare syndrome, and not what anyone else thinks.

At the end of the talk she asked the audience to consider this for themselves, “What defines you?” I took Lizzie’s challenge into my morning contemplation time to examine, “What defines me?” I am by definition (mine and others), a woman, mother, photographer, single, writer, gray-haired, artist, entrepreneur, divorced, talented, short, spiritual, hippie (my fav), and...well, you get the drift. By no means is Lizzie the first person to elicit obvious responses like “Beauty is only skin-deep,” or “It’s what’s inside that counts,” but her question of “What defines you?” was just that, a question that begged to be taken in deeper, examined, and answered. At least for me—today.

It wasn’t too long before I got my answer. I was surprised however, that I had never made this particular connection—beyond the cliche, “Beauty is only skin-deep.” Below the surface of skin, labels, and definitions—what’s inside of us? What is that inside quality of our being that really counts? Our hearts of course! My heart—that is what defines me. What defines you?