Relationships. Boys. Men. Love...all equally as confusing. Being 20 and in college, I have especially gotten even more confused about how to balance all of this in a healthy way. But the one thing that I have learned which I believe is the most important of all is to love yourself first and foremost before loving anyone else.

I am a strong believer that you MUST love yourself completely before even opening yourself up to loving someone else. Relationships are so fun and rewarding, but they can also be difficult since you are adding someone else's feelings and priorities above your own.

Another thing that is important when it comes to self-love is the journey that lets you know what you want with life...your goals, aspirations, what you like and don't like etc. You need to understand who you are inside and out and what makes you the happiest.

The whole point of self-love is pretty clear, but that doesn't mean that it is easy. There are many things in my life that I am insecure about or that I don't like about myself and I know I am not alone with that. I don't like the struggle that I have had with mental health, even when I was a tiny 5 foot tall and 95-pound teenager, I still had a million things that I saw wrong with my body. I wished I was more muscular and toned, I hated my stretch marks, my hands bothered me since my fingers aren't proportional. Looking back at who I was then makes me so sad that at such a young age I felt so insecure.

Of course, as I have gotten older these feeling don't go away. Especially in college, I felt that the true way for me to feel confident and happy with who I am is when a boy liked me. How twisted is that? The sad reality is I can think of so many girls that feel the same way and it is so wrong.

What I am learning now, even though it is hard and not easy by any means, is that boys do not get to make me feel pretty, smart, or fun to be around. It is up to ME to see those qualities in myself. If I don't feel confident in who I am as a person, how am I supposed to think that others will give me that confidence?

The journey to self-love is hard, but as I have gone through this journey, I am learning to love my quirks, what I am passionate about, my body and who I am as a person because no one can define who I am besides myself and who I am is amazing.