Lilian Motta

Transcript

I wish that somebody told me when I was a kid that in order to truly belong I first needed to know who I was like who was this person that wanted to belong in this community you see I had it backwards I thought I'm gonna go I'm gonna get the community everybody's gonna love me and then I'm gonna love myself yeah you can see where that's going so I'm gonna tell you a story of when I first came to Canada I left my entire community behind to the new adventure my parents told me you're gonna wear tooks now and you're gonna say eh and you're

gonna find friends and they're gonna teach you to speak English so I said perfect I equip myself on the first day of school and there I went my hand-me-down clothes but it's okay don't feel sorry because my mom had got me a new pair of kicks from Kmart you know the ones with about four stripes instead of a three so I get to school to finally practice the only line that I knew that what to say so I approached the first little girl that made eye contact with me and I said to her my name is Lilian I don't speak English are you my friend

she looked at me like if she didn't speak English and then she wasn't my friend and that continued for a day or two which led to a couple of weeks and I made a few friends I must say that the seven years that I spent in elementary school weren't that bad I had like one and a half the rest of the kids were simply there to remind me that I didn't belong the rest of the kids were there to make fun of my extra streak on my boot they were there to remind me that the clothes that I wore and the things that I said

was not the cool thing to do they literally pushed me and pushed me and like literally they pushed me until they broke me and I remember being 13 years old standing at the edge of my balcony and just swinging forward and backward thinking to myself I don't belong here these aren't my people I mean who's gonna miss me who's gonna give a if I'm not here and then of course I thought of my mom it was like my mom is really gonna give a if I'm here so took a step back but I took a step back and I didn't stop there I said to

myself there's a problem here I belong here even if it's this little tiny space that I'm taking up here I don't give a I belong right here so I read the entire series of Chicken Soup for the teenage Soul books I swear to God I live because of them and I asked him out for a jean jacket I was like ma please mom I put a photo when you look at this and I took it the jean jacket put my all the kids that make fun of me long as I've changed all the cool kids in the nineties if you're cool in the 90s you

had a jean jacket and I wore that jean jacket and I don't know if it was the chicken soup help or that jean jacket but every time I put it on it felt really cool and I was like I don't care if none of you think I'm cool you guys didn't get the jean jacket memo I know I'm cool I took that attitude throughout all of high school I left all elementary school behind and I became student council president I became like in everything I was an improv I was in sports I decided to be like a fanatic of community and I realized in grade

12 that I still felt like I belonged but I didn't have my jean jacket anymore I just had myself and that one belief I belong I belong right here even if it's in this tiny little space I belong and the important lesson that I got from there was not the community the community helped me community helps it motivates you it elevates you it pushes you to different heights but the person that really needed the thing that I really needed to know was that I loved myself and I accepted myself no matter what so fast forward now I create communities I'm the co-founder of evolve holistic

which is a collective it's a community of people that are educating people on self-care so I decided to take that very important lesson and not only make communities but to teach people that in order for you to truly belong you have to love yourself you have to know yourself you have to take that little tiny light even if it's a tiny little low you gotta take it out and you got to foster it you got to make it grow and grow and shine and shine you have it you have it you have it every single one of you has it and when you expand it

and when you let it shine and when it expands to the horizon you will find the community that you belong to

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