Written by Jacquelin Montgomery
We are JDM Street Threads but more importantly we are Jacquelin and Dustin Montgomery. We are individuals with passions. These passions include building a comfortable life, spreading the power of uniqueness, and learning to accept differences.
Learning to accept who you are can be difficult. Sometimes we beat ourselves up over not being accepted. We feel that we need to fit into a certain crowd or a certain group of people. We may think there is something wrong with ourselves when we get outcast or left out. We feel lonely. Unwanted. Unworthy. Some may call you weird, annoying, or shy. Some may say you talk too much or overshare.
Those words are hurtful. They sting. They make us doubt ourselves. Make us doubt our worth, our meaning, our individualism. Sometimes we just don’t have a lot to say or don’t have an opinion on a topic. Maybe you’re an open book or are passionate about what you’re speaking on. Why does that make others want to be mean? Why do they think it’s okay to act the way they do? Say the things they do? Make you feel the way they made you feel?
What if they don’t realize how they treated you? You must’ve done something, said something to make them say what they said.
All these thoughts that race through our minds. They build the anxiety. They build the anger. They build the hate.
But they don’t have to.
You're not the worst thoughts you have about yourself. You aren’t always in the wrong. You aren’t worthless. You aren’t too shy or too talkative. You aren’t weird or annoying. You are you. You are the person that you are supposed to be. Learn that you are valued. Learn that you are amazing. Learn that you are unique. You haven’t found the right crowd. You haven’t accepted your individualism. Your uniqueness.
Maybe you so badly wanted to fit in with a certain crowd and tried to force it.
Understand what you love. What you’re passionate about. What you care about. Learn to find others with the same passions or interests. Sure, you won’t have everything in common but the parts that matter you will have in common. When you aren’t trying to find the popular crowd to fit in with. When you aren’t trying to pretend to be interested in things you aren’t interested in, that’s when you find your people or person that gets you and understands you. Don’t try to force things that won’t work. It’s just a recipe for disaster. And by disaster I mean beating yourself up, not feeling worthy, and not feeling like the person you were made to be.
Humans want to be understood and cared about. It can be hard and it can be hurtful trying to figure that out but once you accept what makes you who you are. Things can get easier. Will it be a quick fix? No. Will the process of loving yourself be easy? No. But it will be worth it. You will be happier. You will be stronger. You will be unique. You will be accepted by those who care to accept you. You will find that those people are great people. You will accept their faults as they will accept yours. You might argue and have some differences but overall you will build each other up.
Our business is not just about making money. It’s not about becoming popular. It’s about working on becoming our own unique selves. Learning to find where we fit in while helping others learn to find where they fit in. We are not just a business. We are also people with the same human desires and struggles as you. We have struggled ourselves with wanting and trying to fit in. We still struggle with it. We have times where we have accepted who we are and that makes us happier but we also have times where we struggle finding people that share our interests.
Sometimes we find people we think are great and click with us but it turns out that it was fake or we learn we just didn’t click as much as we thought. But that’s life. It’s full of ups and downs and we are trying to learn to go with the flow and to not beat ourselves up so much. We don’t deserve the hurt our minds put us through sometimes just like you don’t deserve the hurt your minds put you through sometimes.
We are hoping over time to build a brand that is true to ourselves and helps you learn to be true to yourself. We hope to be just a small, tiny part of someone’s journey to accepting themselves and loving who they are. We know that is easier said than done. Things take time to build.
We didn’t start this brand just to make money or for the status it could potentially bring us. We wanted to build something that will also in turn build who we are as people. We want to better ourselves. We want to learn. We want to grow.
By starting this blog, we hope to reach people that are learning with us. We want to share our struggles and our thought process behind what we’re doing. So far in the few months we’ve been working hard on this, we have learned just how difficult building a business can be and we want to take you all along on this journey with us. Hopefully by watching us on TikTok or by reading through our progress here on this blog, it will help someone somehow in some way.
I researched before writing this blog on how long a blog post should be. The results said 1,500 to 2,500 words. This blog is at 1,016 words not including the title. I forgot her name but my Comp II professor once told me that sometimes an essay is at it’s end even if it doesn’t fit the assignment criteria. And that’s okay.
So, go out there and try to be your own unique self.