Before-word: This is more than a poem. It’s a coming-to-terms piece about what it means to evolve into the realization and acceptance that imperfection is perfectly perfect when one operates from a place of healthy striving for excellence.

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I’m sure you’ve often heard people say, “I’m not perfect” (or you may have said/thought this of yourself). Usually it’s said as part of the justification retort when they’ve missed the mark—didn’t live up to theirs’ or someone else’s expectations.

As a child, I was quiet and observant. Reserved and introverted, I internalized and lived comfortably in my own head. Learning and achieving were important parts of my upbringing. So were good manners and proper decorum. I was always driven. Never satisfied. Always seeing beyond my sight, striving for mastery and excellence. AND I aimed to prove. I lived to please. Perfectionism informed how I studied, how I functioned, how I did my chores. And more distinctively, perfectionism informed my expectations of others which meant inevitably I was more often than not disappointed and reverted to being almost fully self-reliant.

In living a life free of seeking others approval and expectations I’ve come to learn the difference between a healthy striving for excellence and perfectionism.

Perfectionism is an unattainable goal that leaves you in a cycle of negative self-criticism and blame, or a state of anxiousness and depression because try with all your might you will never be perfect.

Let perfection not be your aim. Indeed, pursue all you do with a high level of excellence but not with the aim to please, to prove or to perform. When I owned my imperfection and rocked my flawsomeness, in that moment I realized … I’m uniquely me and beautifully imperfect.

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In creative solidarity, Dee