Confidence, especially in who you are is a very and extremely important thing to have, especially as a woman in this society. People always tell us to be beautiful (because apparently that is how women are supposed to be), but being a woman is more than that. Confidence is being able to have full trust and belief (especially in oneself). We call that self-confidence and that is just as important. Lack of self-confidence is a whole another story. In other words, if you do not have self-confidence, that is no good. Being strong, confident, and working hard all go hand in hand.
Some people might say that having confidence can make you an ego maniac and arrogant (in fact, I think the word people might use in this instance is the b**** word). That is by the way not a nice word to use (at least in my books). In my mind there is nothing wrong with being overly confident (even in Demi’s song “Confident”, she asks “What’s wrong with being confident?) The answer to that question is absolutely nothing. I would rather be viewed as overly confident, rather than not having any confidence (trust me when I say that we can all work on our confidence). We should never have to worry if other people like us or not (it is not our responsibility to make them like us to begin with). This is the perfect moment to bring up a quote. “Confidence isn’t walking into a room with your nose in the air, and thinking you’re better than everyone else, it’s walking into a room and not having to compare yourself to anybody else to begin with.” I know that I have talked about never comparing yourself to other people and that is almost exactly what the right confidence does (which is not being better than anybody else).
That is why I have good role models who are confident like Beyoncé and Demi Lovato. They really do not care who likes them. I think it is because they have so much confidence in themselves that they really stop caring about others (and that does not make them selfish). They are strong, confident, independent and hard working women. In fact, besides Demi, Beyoncé has written some pretty wonderful songs about that, including “Singe Ladies (Put a Ring On It).” I just recently got her “Lemonade” album (just a little while ago) and I absolutely love it. Sure, she put her marriage on blast, but she sings a lot about what it is like to being a strong, independent, and confident woman (especially as an African American woman). I like her songs such as “Freedom” (with Kendrick Lamar) and “Formation,” but one of my favorite is “Six Inch” (which has inspired this poem that I have included down below in this post). In this song (if you really listen to the lyrics) she talks about working hard for the money. One of my lines in this song is “Six inch heels, she walked in the club like nobody’s business/
Goddamn, she murdered everybody and I was her witness.”
I decided to channel my inner Beyoncé and wrote this poem because Beyoncé is so inspirational. It helped to channel my inner persona (almost like a diva or an ego kind of in a sense). When I posted this piece as a member of Deep Underground Poetry (a writing community), a person who commented on it brought up a quote (a good one that is now one of my favorites) by Anaïs Nin. She says “The first time he looked at her he felt: everything will burn.” So I hope that my readers (and everybody else) will channel their inner Beyoncé (or whoever they look up to) and having tons of self-confidence.
Working Hard
She can set everything on fire,
But she would never stop and take
Notice. She only feels her own desire
For success. She wants to make
Every man feel weak and powerless.
She is never the one who will fake
Her own confidence. She is the mess
And chaos. She is also the calm
And will never be the one to confess
Her sins to the greedy. Her palm
Faces up not to surrender, but to
Help those who need it. She is a bomb
In the making, never taking shit from you
Because she is built from the ground
Up. Do not run to her when you screw
And mess it all up because she is bound
To not care about your pathetic excuses.
She is death, quiet without making a sound.
She never apologizes for her bruises
Or ugly scars. You should be the one who
Is running scared. She chooses
To see her life from the top window and view
Without being selfish. She works hard for
The money. She sees past everything that blew
Up. She has made the choice to restore
Her own happiness, trust and faith.
I caution you to think extremely hard before
She comes to destroy you like a wraith.
She does not float in the light like a halo,
But she also refuses to forever bathe
In the darkness like a lost child with yellow
Hair like the sunlight. Watch out for the
Lava that is coming out of her like a volcano.