Today I received a letter in my mail box unlike any that has ever touched my fingertips. The letter was from a girl that I have never met beyond a smile on campus. The note was short but sweet:

I don’t even think you remember me but I always see you around campus and we have talked once. I had heard your name come up in conversation and you talked to me one day, not even intentionally I don’t think, and I suddenly understood why people thought you were a great person.  You are always put together, I never see you without a smile on your face and you just seem to glow. Since meeting you I have known that I wanted to be just like you and I thought you should know that. Good luck after graduation.

Not the note I was expecting to encounter in box 243 just one week from my college graduation. But jeepers I am thankful that she wrote this to me. This letter made me take a serious step backward and look at my day-to-day routine. Often I never think twice about the people I am engaged in a conversation with or how I go about tackling a busy schedule; I certainly never thought that just by being myself I could inspire someone to want to be like me. That, my friends, was a sugar pill to swallow.

But I have traced this letter all day, my fingers sliding along the edges of the bright blue stationary. And I have read it a few times. And I just keep coming back to the mention of my “glow.”

I think the secret to any glow lies in living life out intentionally. People who I admire in my own life glow in my eyes because they don’t attempt to be someone else; they put a remarkable value on each day and they make use of their every opportunity. We make decisions on a daily basis about how we want to present ourselves to the world or who we want to associate with. We make choices that, correct me if I am wrong, meant to make us learn, grow and develop in this ever shifting world. So what can we say for ourselves if they are all the wrong decisions? If we spend time with people who keep us pent up in little boxes or if we constantly mingle with individuals who belittle our dreams. What if every single day we decide to treat ourselves badly, make mockery of our own dreams, our bodies, or our physical appearance in general?

We do have a power, whether we see it or not, to present the best version of ourselves to the word. We decide who gets a spot in our cast of our life story, who receives more lines and more stage direction. We have the choice to either cut to play out a scene to the end or cut to the next stage in the story. No matter what we choose to do, we should not take this ability to take life into our owns hands for granted..

It is no secret that I am a lover of all things Weezy F. Baby. He may be incarcerated and not the best of role models, but for reasons that I don’t really know, I adore him. In his documentary he said, “I do what I want because I do what I want every single day.” Oh Lil Wayne, how I love your eloquence.

He is no Shakespeare but I follow his mantra. I pray at the end of each day to wake up the next; to be true, to be real and to fill myself up with good people and good conversation. If I have been hard on myself the day before I simply vow to do better the next day, go a little easier on myself, and patch up my mistakes. I take care of myself. I take care of others. And I think that’s enough.

I don’t do these things for other people. I do these things because I want to do them. And maybe, just maybe, in doing so I have found a way to glow, a way to brighten someone’s day just by being me. Intentionally.

How do you live with intention?