What is “legitimacy”?

Legitimacy (n.): The state or quality of being legitimate.

Legitimate (adj.): To be genuine.

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I will tell you what this word means to me, and why I think it’s so essential to my life. First, I want to tell you about my youth group.

My youth group family is my family, and they have been for the past 8 years. I’ve been through so much with them by my side. When I started attending this group, I’ve struggled with how people would perceive me if I chose to expose a certain part of me, so I put up a front. It took me a while to  that realize that as I created this facade, I was creating a false image of myself. This facade kept me from getting the real support I could get from my family. I grew into someone who learned that being open is not a bad thing at all! As the years passed, I became a youth leader- a role model to young women in my community. The only way for me to effectively reach out to them is by exposing myself, and by opening up about my experiences in life.

I am in no way perfect, but the God who created me most definitely is. By sharing my struggles, and being humble enough to admit that, “my life isn’t perfect,” or “I struggled with that just like you have,” allows us to have a human connection because, as we all know, no human is perfect. I would say that being real makes us more #relatable to one another, but is that too mainstream? It’s true regardless; when someone reveals to us that they have gone through a similar struggle, or is empathetic, we are more inclined to open up, correct?

To me, being legit means being vulnerable. Vulnerability is a form of bravery, considering that many people tend to be careful not to share too much. In a sense, it is a smart move- it can keep us from getting hurt. But if we keep too much to ourselves, it can be dangerous, because you never know who could benefit from hearing about your struggles and sufferings. I think God allows struggles & hardships for a reason, so that when we overcome them by His grace, we can provide hope for someone else. It isn’t easy to do, in fact, it’s very frightening sometimes. But sometimes all it takes is a little bit of bravery.