If You Really Knew Me...

Last night, MTV premiered a new, thought provoking, show entitled If You Really Knew Me. Set in different high schools across the United States, the over-arching theme of the show is to unite schools under one common banner: love. To some, this idea can come off as cheesy and a bad media ploy for the program behind the show but this program actually holds weight. If the workers or the day known as "Challenge Day" looks familiar, it is because we had first seen them on Oprah around 2005-2006 when they first debuted this program. I was hooked for that one hour then and I am definitely hooked now after watching the first episode.

Let's delve deeper into the issues being presented. As students sit in a circle, they start off by saying "If you really knew me..." then they talk about familial issues, suicide, sexual orientation, peer pressure, etc. It's not easy to discuss these issues with anyone or even with yourself for that matter so when you have to do it in front of a camera, here is where you see true bravery. I want to give these students and students in future episodes my respect because how many of us are dying to address some of these issues but can't find a safe space to do some? How many of us want to look in the mirror and be able to say to ourselves "if you really  knew me..."?

I'm proud to say that I am someone who survived the awkward teenage years , the peer pressure, the doubt, and has done something positive with it. However, there are some of us who haven't come to grips with these issues and if you're reading and are still harboring these emotions, then know that I support you.

If you really knew me, you'd know that I'm a sucker for positivity and optimism.

XOXO,
Whitney