I’m your normal 20-year-old girl. You know, focusing on my first world problems, continuously mooching off my parents and focusing on bettering my future. And I’m glad that in the world I live in I will always have people that love me. Though, what happens if you don’t exactly love yourself?

Since elementary school, I have been teased about my weight from friends, strangers, and even family members. I’m not huge and I’m not skinny, but that isn’t exactly the point. I remember flashbacks from when I would come home crying my eyes out because of a few mean words.

I look back and I realize that it isn’t my fault. Thankfully, for a girl like me, the times have changed and now having an ass is in… though that wasn’t the case in the early 2000s. Now, you see models like Iskra Lawrence or Ashley Graham on magazines and thankfully that has helped boost the confidence of millions worldwide.

I’m not saying that being thick is better just like I’m not saying being thin is better.

What I’m trying to say is that beauty has no solid definition. Not everyone is going to think you’re pretty and that’s okay, in fact, it’s something that I’ve just come to terms with.

Beauty changes so rapidly that the human race has no time to define it as just one thing. I remember being too ashamed to wear a bikini, and now it’s the only thing I wear when I swim. Once I came to accept who I was a person, I realized that my body can become whatever I wanted it to be.

I try my hardest to go to the gym on weekdays and hike on weekends. Sometimes things go to plan, and sometimes things don’t.

I suppose what I’m trying to say is that I’m going to love the skin I’m in and I’m going to try my hardest to mold it to what I think is beautiful and healthy. Not for anyone else’s sake but my own.

People will always have something to say because the troll population will never diminish no matter what anyone does, though who cares about internet trolls anyway?

Choosing to live a healthy and happy life is the best sort of revenge for those who wish to see you fall. To live unabashedly you is something that many won’t even live to do. Wasting time worrying about a roll or flab is only causing you harm and nobody else.

Wear what you want and work on it. It’s easier said than done, I know. There are days where it’s hard to look at myself in the mirror, and there are days where I embrace my curves. It all depends on what I surround myself with and how I’m feeling that day.

Sadness is only temporary, just as happiness is. I’m not sure where I would be if I didn’t have such support from my friends both at home and at school. Always keep people by your side that hold you up, not bring you down.