This week at Oxford College of Emory University, it was Love Your Body week. For each day of the week, different organizations, such as Healthy Eagles and Center for Healthy Living, put on events to remind you how and why you should love your body. In a culture like the one we live in today, the significance of simply loving your body is incredibly underrated because it is something that everyone should do, but probably doesn’t. I know it can be very hard to love my body.

Fifth grade was the first time I began thinking about body image. I wasn’t athletic until seventh grade and because of this, I didn’t think about health very often. I was, and always have been, naturally slim. As a kid, I simply ate what I wanted and enjoyed life without worrying about weight or food. It was in fifth grade when our elementary school began to emphasize healthy eating in our classes, every day. Certain lunch items wouldn’t be allowed, no sweet treats could be brought to class for birthdays, only healthy snacks could be eaten in classrooms, and there was constant emphasis on your body. It was a good curriculum, and it was very important. However, I was young. I didn’t know how to balance what I was being told. Therefore, I started to refuse to eat anything unhealthy -- no cookies, brownies, cake, etc. I feared the idea of going to McDonald’s. I started questioning everything I was eating because that’s what I was told to do in school. I feared getting fat. These ideals were engrained so harshly into my mind that I thought I needed to change everything I was doing.

I’m sure my mom doesn’t remember this night, but I do. One night, I came downstairs, slightly concerned and slightly curious. “Why are there circles under my eyes? I’m not tired and they won’t go away,” I told her. She replied that I wasn’t eating enough. This was something I didn’t understand. I was eating only healthy fruits and vegetables like my school taught me. Doesn’t that mean I should be healthy? I never eat sweets. I try to not eat sugar and processed foods. Doesn’t that mean I’m automatically healthy?

This is exactly the fault in the curriculum I was taught. It taught us what not to eat. It taught us what to cut out of our diets. It taught us the evils of the food world. It made me think food was my enemy. At such a young age, I didn’t know that being healthy was more than eating your fruits and vegetables. I didn’t know that I was perfectly healthy at the start of fifth grade. I didn’t know that I was fine before it all began. I didn’t know that my body was beautiful the way it was.

In the media, today, body image has gotten so much better. It’s no longer a media filled only with size zero models. It’s a media filled with different types of bodies and acceptance for different weights and shapes. I think the representation of body image in media should be very simple -- love your body. To me, it’s not about losing weight. It’s not about looking flawless. It’s not about avoiding food. If you love your body, you will take care of it and be as healthy as you can. Maybe you’re not where you want to be yet, but you love your body and you’re doing all you can to keep it healthy.

Being healthy means living realistically. It doesn’t mean you cut everything out, but it also doesn’t mean you eat more than your body needs. Maybe you’re working on losing weight or getting in shape, and it will be a long time until your body is where you want it. That’s OK. You’re beautiful. Maybe you’re naturally very skinny, and you want to gain muscle and weight, but you know it’s a process. It’s OK because you’re still beautiful. Maybe you’re still not ok with your own body image. That’s ok. I know you’re beautiful and one day, you’ll see it too. I think that loving your body is a goal and some days it may seem far away. It’s a great goal, but it’s also a process, and that’s ok. I know you’re beautiful and one day, I hope you see it too.