Because Nice Matters
Posted on November 30 2016
By Guest Blogger: Logan Lester. Logan served as a Southern Jewlz model during her career at Texas A&M University and walked in all 3 of our charity If The Crown Fits Wear It! Fashion Shows. She is a beautiful soul inside and out and I wanted to spread the good in the world by sharing her story on the blog! She is the brunette pictured on the left below. Hope you enjoy Lolo's words:
Years ago, I was busy shredding lettuce and chopping carrots in the kitchen. When I just so happened to glance curiously over to my daddy’s knife blade just as he made the cut into a delicious pomegranate. In all my years, I had never seen a color so deep, pure, red and lovely. The precious red was made up of numerous baby seeds just jam packed together. It looked so vulnerable cut open like that yet hopeful at the same time. It was that moment that I thought to myself, “I want that to be my heart from this day forward.” The stereotyped evil color, red, became the motivation to my life motto, “Because Nice Matters.” I soon learned that along with a nice heart comes pain, then understanding, and then, finally, the determination to use my passion of sharing my heart to its fullest potential.
Since discovering my own definition of the color red, it has been my mission to spread kindness to everyone I encountered. Although nice matters to a lot of people, it can intimidate others. In high school, I have dealt with the “mean girls” who strove to take away my smile and cover my shining light through bullying. I have truly seen how God can take pain, yank it out of your hand, roll it around for a while, scratch the deepest layer, and then, hand it back as this gorgeous, glowing thing. He leaves a lesson each time with tiny, invisible scars that only the victim can see. Handling a bully all sounds so easy, but trust me, there have been nights when maybe my parents or the neighbors have heard me crying through the bathroom window. The constant bullying defiantly made my spirit weak at times, but never did I allow it to take anything away from my ripe, red, beating heart. I made sure to never lose sight of my higher self in the never ending battles. I taught myself that surviving the bullies is all about the reaction in any given situation. It would be so easy for me to act brittle and mean, for ugliness is so easy to give when the mean girls continued to put me down. However, I found that even though it is a lot easier to hate those who do not like you than it is to love them. Showing them love will help impact their human spirits a lot more in the long run than it would to rebuttal back in the moment, which will only alter the situation for a short period. Yes, it defiantly does take quite a bit of extra deep breaths and conscious choices with your actions and words. (Also, it takes real life prayers where you really believe you are talking to someone who created you.) But, it is possible to react with style and to have a grip of grace when dealing with unhappy people, for it is possible to feel great happiness despite great ugliness.
The simple act of choosing to react in a nice manner or choosing to do something that demonstrates kindness and consideration sends a powerful message to people, whether I intend to do so or not. Often nice translates to a secret little message that says something mind changing to the other person. I mean, come on, I was intrigued by a pomegranate for Pete’s sake. I think that if I can be inspired by a piece of fruit anyone can be inspired by a genuine person. Being nice to someone says to that person, “you matter.” When we choose the road of kindness, it also says a lot about our values and what kind of person we are deep inside. Even better than changing our own selves, our nice attitudes can dramatically influence a person when we show them how to love. I refuse to believe that the world I live in today is a terrible place. That is why I simply fell in love with Southern Jewlz, and all that it stands for. When I came to college, I got really inspired by the SJ brand. A few months into my freshman year, Randa and I met. I ended modeling in the first annual “If the Crown Fits” Fashion show. Southern Jewlz really gave me the confidence to stand up for what I believed in and what I stood for. The brand also gave me hope. Hope that there are also lots of sweet, hard working, and kind women out there that want to lift others up instead of bring them down.
However, I know something different than most people though; I know that with pain comes understanding, with understanding comes commitment to know that, with the right attitudes, walls can be knocked down, hearts can change, and, with the right leadership, a friendlier environment can be born. I feel that I am being a constant motivator for others and for myself. I also think that Southern Jewlz brand and clothing can girls women the chance to feel confident and be apart of a awesome girl tribe that you can count on. Although I have found that the bullies never go away (still dealing with some pretty mean people to this day), it does feel good to know that there are strong women out there who want to empower each other. So, with a pomegranate colored heart like mine I will continue to carry myself with pride, respect, manners, perseverance, hard work and an affable mindset, all qualities ready to show the world that NICE DOES MATTER and so does dressing cute! ;)
Be sure to check out my video: “21 Acts of Kindness”! Spread the word and choose to be KIND.
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