About halfway through my senior year in high school, I was like, "Alright girl, you have like six months till college. It's time to lose all that extra fat that you have." And for about a month and a half, I would exercise and eat nothing but carrots and celery. It was just a cycle of unhappiness and negativity.

We have this idea of college as a new start. Everything must be different - our hair, our clothes, even our bodies!

College is a new start. You get to grow as a person, become who you truly are. You can become this being who is productive and healthy; emotionally, mentally, and physically. Or at least on your journey towards that.

Or that is what should ideally be happening. But because of the world we've grown up in, we try to change to fit a certain mold. We strive for thigh gaps and small waists or thick legs and flat stomachs. We weren't told to embrace ourselves the way we are.

All of that is true. But it's time to own up to our own mistakes as well. We have allowed society to have that much power over us. We need to accept that and now move one. You must grow! I need to grow! It's not right that we just live like this. I know I am not the only one who walks around going, "I'm fat" or "I'm ugly." That's shit! We can't even see how poisonous we are being to ourselves!

We need to look in mirrors, even during the rough days and at least try to smile at what we see.

Make the effort to be kind to yourself. Your body is yours, your mind is yours. The power is in your hands. You can either use it to rise like the queen you are or allow all your beauty to be stolen away from you by your own self.