When was the last time someone came to you in earnest and told you something that they loved about you? The idea of writing this has been floating through my head for the last few months, but I haven’t taken the time to sit down and really write it until it came up twice in one week.

The first time happened in my favorite class, my joint English and Civics, when my wonderful, amazing, kind, supporting (fill in other verbs synonymous with “perfect” here) English teacher gave us our new project groups. She told us that if there was someone in our group we thought would be great for a role, mention it because they might not realize how awesome they are. As my teacher said, if people never got told how amazing they are because we just assume that they know, they might never find out.

Then, again in church this Sunday, my pastor spoke about encouragement and lifting people up. He spoke about how the negative content we are exposed to outweighs the positive too often and about how we as a community have the power and responsibility to use our words to start building up those around us. Groups of people that say more positive comments tend to work better together and be more productive than those who have negative comments, but these comments must be said aloud. Kylie won’t know how beautiful and kind you think she is if you never tell her, if no one tells her but keeps it inside because it’s just assumed that she already knows.

So, how is it that this idea can be floating through my mind, in my teacher’s mind, and in my pastor’s mind all at the same time? The answer, I believe, is that there is an epidemic in our world, not one of disease or of famine, but one of “self”. Too often, people find it necessary to tear others apart in order to build themselves up. Too often, people never take the time to mention what someone is doing well; instead someone will get torn down for what they can’t seem to succeed at.

How can we deem ourselves good, or good enough, if everything seems to be telling us that we are not? If Kylie gets told once that she is beautiful, but three times that she isn’t smart enough, pretty enough, or athletic enough, will she ever think that she is good enough? That is where our world’s epidemic lies; it’s in the water, the air, and the soil. Our society reeks of negativity and hatred.

What if we girls took a step out of this box that has been formed, the box that declares, “If you want to be enough, you have to force others to not be enough.” Instead, start building each other up. If we come together, I believe that we can cure the world of this epidemic that is more destructive than Tuberculosis, HIV, and cancer combined. Together we can brighten this world into a place where people are happy about themselves and where people want others to share in that happiness as well. So, spread the word: You are kind enough, brave enough, smart enough, beautiful enough, athletic enough. You are enough.