This Is Us - I Am Kate

A slight departure from my normal posts, but have you been watching This Is Us?  I am absolutely loving every episode.  It is about a couple who are going to have triplets in 1970.  However, one of the triplets does not survive the birth.  But a baby was dropped off at the fire station and this couple take this baby home along with their twins and raise all three children.

I began watching this show and I was like - oh my goodness.  I am Kate!  In my mind, I struggled with so many of the things that they show Kate struggling with, from a little girl to an adult.  When Kate was little and she was at the swimming pool, she "covered up" so the other girls wouldn't make fun of her.  I was never teased or bullied like that, but I did "cover up" often.

In the top photo I am in the back row, last person on the right.  I thought I was so heavy.  My best friends are sitting in the front row in the middle.  The blonde girl and the dark hair girl to her left.  They were "super skinny" in my opinion and I always compared myself to them.  I look at this now, and I don't see fatty Patty.

In the bottom photo I am in the center with yellow shorts on.  These are my best, best friends from high school.  However, I always felt like an outsider.  They didn't make me feel that way.  I made myself feel that way.  Again, I thought they were all beautiful and I covered myself up with shorts.

I wonder what we can do to help the little girls of today gain confidence in their apperances?  I feel like This Is Us is doing a great job showcasing Kate's struggles.  There's a scene where she and her overweight boyfriend weigh in at a meeting and he reaches his goal and she loses like 1/2 pound.  Yet they had both eaten the same all week.  Oh my goodness, could I relate?  Dave could drop weight just by saying the words, "I think I'll drop weight this week."  Me however, it was brutal and slow and up and down.

Let's just say I am super thankful for where I am now.  As this stellar year (for me) draws to a close, I've been thinking about how thankful I am for all I've accomplished and for all those who have had a part in that with me.  I constantly need to work on the self-worth piece and I hope to get better at helping young girls with their self-worth so they don't struggle with it when they are in their 50s.

Real quick - the other part of the show This Is Us that I am loving is Randall.  Randall is the baby that was adopted.  He is African American.  He is being raised by a white family with white twins as siblings in the 1970s.  Think back to what the 1970s were like.  I was born in the 1960s.  In the early 1960s our neighbors were an African American family.  They had two little girls that played with me and my sister Teresa all the time.  I did not know they were any different than me.  I did not understand color or even the term "African American."  I just played with the girls.

Mildred, Soray, Me, and Teresa

Apparently my parents took a lot of heat for this, but they did not care.  They stood up for what they believed in - equality - and we children never knew it was an issue.

The most recent episode of This Is Us shows Randall and his father attending a Martial Arts Studio and I just absolutely love the initiation they did.  You may need to be on a desktop for the video to work, but you can google it too.  

"As you get older, you may find that things get hard.  The world isn't always a kind place, especially for men like us.....Jack your back was built to carry your son through life.  Are you willing to hold him up no matter what comes his way?"  "Yes sir."  "Show him."

Just so many things to love about this show and how it parallels my life.  Let's be a little kinder, a little more supportive, and encourage one another each day.  Have a great day!