'I like you, very much. Just as you are.'

I'm not a "My So-Called Life" super-fan, but there are moments from the show that have stuck with me over the year. One that I've been thinking about lately is in the episode "The Zit" when Angela is supposed to do a fashion show with her mom, Patty, but, thanks to the zit in question and the general malaise associated with being a 15-year-old girl, Angela doesn't want to participate.

In the episode's climax, Angela has a heart-to-heart with her mom and asks her what it was like to be so pretty when she was younger. Patty responds, "I just wish that I'd been able to enjoy it."

Of course, Patty was still pretty, with her pixie haircut and sharp features, but she didn't feel as pretty as she had been in her moment, whenever that was. When I watched the show as a teenager, that idea of having a certain time in your life when you were at your absolute best, and then not even realizing it or being able to enjoy it, really struck me. Now that I'm closer to Patty's age than Angela's, it still does.

Did I have that moment, that day, that week, whatever, when I was my absolute best? If I did, I missed it because I have no recollection of it. Was I working late that day? Did I oversleep? Was I bogged down in a big project? What kept me from making the most of it?

Life is littered with missed opportunities and, for too many of us, the opportunity to truly appreciate and accept ourselves is one of those. "I'd be great if I had a different haircut, bigger boobs, longer legs, a smaller nose, fuller lips …" Those fixes are rarely the answer, so we'll find something else to fixate on.

All of this picking and fixating is so terrible, and it keeps us from truly loving and appreciating ourselves as we are. Rivers Cuomo sings, "One look in the mirror and I'm tickled pink" in Weezer's "Pork & Beans." I want to be that person.

Having this I'm-great-just-the-way-I-am attitude can be an excuse to be lazy. I do have to be more accepting of myself but I also have to walk more and go to that early Sunday yoga class and, despite it being one of the greatest things in life, I don't need to drink Coke probably ever.

The attitude I'm developing for myself is "I'm great and getting better." I don't want to pick myself into complete melancholic paralysis but also don't want to settle for being a so-so version of myself. I want to be strong, confident and happy enough to recognize and enjoy whatever awaits.