“You matter.”
– Theron, Snow Like Ashes, by Sara Raasch

…there’s not really all that much to add to that, is there? 🙂

At this point in the story, the main character, Meira, is struggling with some issues of personal self-worth. She believes she’s been held back, overlooked, even used as a pawn. She believes that the people who raised her don’t value her, and she has good reason to believe that others consider her importance as merely incidental. She has a role to fulfill, and that’s it. She, herself, the person she is, does not matter to them.

Then comes her romantic interest, whom she has grown comfortable enough with to share her feelings with, albeit in an emotional outburst. He replies to her with only these two words, and they are exactly right.

There is much that Meira doesn’t yet understand. She doesn’t know just how much she matters to those closest to her. But even more, she hasn’t learned that selflessness which eventually allows her to let go of her ego and mature a little. She gets that when she’s eventually thrown into a hellish life alongside people who have been told and shown how unimportant they are for a very long time. Some of them actually believe it, but many, despite the overwhelming darkness of their lives, know, deep down, that they do matter. They have just one tiny spark of hope left, because they still have their identity.

No matter what happens to them, no matter how beaten down and powerless they are, no matter how insignificant they are, they still matter.

So do we. We matter. I matter. You matter.

That holds true no matter your circumstances, no matter your flaws and limits and mistakes, no matter what anyone else says or does to you, or thinks of you.

Simply by virtue of existing…

You matter.

So don’t let anyone or anything convince you otherwise.