As J. Cole once said, "Love yourself, girl, or nobody will."

As I approach my sophomore year of college, I realized for the first time that I truly and utterly love myself. Don't get me wrong-- loving myself took a long time, and to finally accept myself and all my flaws-- took even longer. I repeat, it did not just happen. I am also still in the process of it, I grow every single day by loving myself more and more.

I did not just wake up one morning and say, "Damn it feels good to be Abby!" I did, however, wake up every morning with a smile on my face, and a positive outlook towards life and my hopes high. No matter what got me mad each morning (like my mom's voice, the fact I couldn't eat till noon because of my class schedule, or the fact that everybody is pretty shitty always) I pushed through it and knew that at the end of the day, I would go to sleep happy and more importantly, happy with myself.

OK, I'm not a huge Demi Lovato fan (who is?), but what she said here is some true ass shit.

How are you supposed to truly love other people when you can't even love yourself? Demand the respect, love, and care you deserve, you're worth it.

I feel like I'm going off on a tangent right now, but I'm just so happy to see that some people are finally putting themselves first in relationships, life, jobs and so much more where they weren't treated the right way. I remember not loving or even liking myself. The circumstances I was in made me feel like I was alone in the world and didn't want to be alone anymore, so I pushed myself on people (especially boys) who didn't care about me the way I thought I cared about them. I was devastated when they left me for the way that I acted-- but looking back, who wouldn't?

And then as I started to do things that made me happy each day-- going to the gym, eating right, getting sober, doing well in school, and leaving the toxic people out of my life-- I finally started to like myself. I can finally start to remember what loving myself felt like.

Since then, I haven't been in a relationship because I want to completely focus on myself and all that I can accomplish. It feels great to wake up each morning and know that I love myself, and one day I'll be able to love someone that same way.