Strength TogetHER 11- Session 4

24th July 2021.

Facilitated by Lokopakar "Strength Together" is a virtual space where girls having different stories come together and share their experiences and opinions. Within a very short period of time, this platform has been expanded to various parts of Nepal. It has been walking with the motto "girls supporting girls".

On 24th July 2021, we had the fourth session of cohort 11. The topic of our session was "Embracing the glorious mess that I am". There we talked about our insecurities and fears. Also, we shared our experiences regarding how we managed to overcome those insecurities and fears little by little. 

Our session was moderated by Kavya Bishwokarma who is a fresh graduate of Bachelors of Social Science with experiences in mentoring and emceeing. She has also worked as a junior journalist at the Republica associated with Maiti Nepal. 

In the session, we talked about how every one of us is striving in one way or the other to be fit in others' definition of beautiful. Our speakers shared their experiences regarding how they were made fun of just because they were skinny/fat/short/tall, etc. We talked about how we've been living in a society where people focus on our physical appearances and how we are often passed hateful comments. Despite the fact that we all know that none is perfect and every one of us mess up things sometimes, people tend to make us feel more ashamed of ourselves. Stories regarding how we're often made fun of our body hair, our teeth, our face, our height, etc, and how that eventually has dropped our self-esteem in one way or the other, were shared. Speakers also shared their experiences regarding how hard they strived to overcome their insecurities. To not let loathsome comments affect us is indeed not possible and thus we also shared how we gradually started accepting us little by little. We shared stories regarding how others' perception of us doesn't make us who we are. 

Our moderator gave us very insightful feedbacks and the session was so fruitful.

She shared her opinions of how beauty is all about perception and at the end of the day, what matters is what we think about ourselves.

She gave responses to speakers accordingly and also made us realize that acceptance of who we are is all that matters.

Everyone is different and everyone is beautiful in their own way, and understanding the fact that there's no one else like you and that makes you, you is what she let us learn.

She also shared that change doesn't happen overnight but we can take smaller steps and start loving being ourselves, and there is no shame in being who you actually are. 

This session was indeed so fruitful for we got to share our experiences and we knew that we're not alone. There were almost thirty participants and we got to learn so many things from each other. Most importantly, this session indeed helped us take a step towards accepting and loving ourselves just the way we are. 

This blog is written by Usha Adhikari who's currently waiting for her results of SEE examination. She's keen interest in reading books and writing and loves listening songs more than anything. She's always striving to be a better, and a kinder person.