Everyone has insecurities: those inhibitions that make us all cringe at the mirror on our worst days. Whether it be a nose that is too big or eyes that are too small, it is an universal commonality. For example, one of my biggest insecurities is my torso. It is shorter than most people my height, and so I feel like it makes my body as a whole look weird and seeing beautiful girls with beautiful bodies often highlights this. With that being, said there are things I love about my body, for instance my gorgeous long legs—and it is because of my short torso that my legs are so long.

Confidence is all about finding the beauty within yourself and realizing that your insecurities do not define you. What makes a person confident is their ability to come to terms with what they cannot change about themselves, and instead highlight what is beautiful about them. This is not limited to physical appearance. Being confident is about being completely comfortable in your own skin, caring about how you feel about yourself before you allow the opinion of others to affect you. For example, I took a public speaking class my first semester and I was terrified. I thought everyone was going to laugh at what I was saying and think I was stupid. I gave myself the impression that they would not care about what I was saying and that they would find me boring. In order to overcome that, I had to make sure I researched what I was saying. I also had to be sure that I cared about the topic I was discussing. During my first speech, I was timid and worried. I was insecure about the words I'd written down as well as how I phrased them. I was more focused on what I thought the class would like to hear than with what it is I wanted to say. As the weeks went on, I realized that the speeches that were more personal to me and the ones I took the most pride in were the ones that resonated best with my audience.

The moral of the story is to accept the fact that there are things about ourselves that we cannot change. In order to be confident, we need to focus on the beautiful things inside of ourselves and take pride in who we are and everything that we do. Once you master this, you will exude confidence.