In 1992, Dr. Gary Chapman wrote his famous book, The 5 Love Languages. He essentially broke down that everyone accepts love and gives love in 5 basic ways: words of affirmation, quality time, acts of service, physical touch, and giving gifts.

There are several quizzes worldwide that help people break down the ways that they best love others, and these quizzes get specific - men's, women's, teen's, and even specifically military's love languages.

With a mother like mine, it was inevitable that I would discover which of these I needed the most. I sat at the kitchen bar, and I clicked away until I got my results - words of affirmation. (On a side note, my best outward love language is giving gifts! I'm a pro at that.)

So, I grew up knowing that I needed positive, verbal reinforcement. Even now, I recognize how helpful words of affirmation can be. I am a part of a lot of things that need constant confirmation that I am doing well, but in the real world, people are not your parents, constantly telling you how amazing you are.

In my second year of college, I have learned that I have to be able to affirm myself. On a cheer team of 30+ people, everyone does well on given days, and there is no way to call out every positive thing that happens. With everyone constantly getting better and progressing, it's also hard to shoutout specific people on a routine basis, but obviously I would function better if someone told me that I was hitting extra solid that day.

In my creative media courses, I file away critique after critique to better my projects, but with that comes the toll that I never hear a "this is what you did well." It's always what I can do to "fix" the assignment rather than what I did that made the assignment individual and unique.

No one is going to sit at my beck and call to praise every good thing I do, even if that's how I want things to go. Even really good friends aren't always going to give you the exact compliment that you want to hear, but it is important to accept the effort and realize that being noticed at all is an affirmation.