I've never truly liked myself. There was always something I could find wrong about myself.

When I was younger, I was overweight.

I hit that age where I got taller by the day.

As I got taller, my weight distributed itself throughout my body, but every time I looked in the mirror, all I saw was the thighs that touched, the stomach that wiggled and lumped when I sat, the thighs that shook as I stepped.

I still saw myself as overweight, even though I was far from it.

Years passed by, and then I started to gain weight. I had stopped playing softball, and spent summers indoors laying in my bed. I'd get out to eat and go to the bathroom, and they right back in.

I became overweight again. I still am.

As I look back on pictures from when I played softball, I realized just how skinny I was. Twig arms, long thin legs. My collarbones were so prominent that they cast shadows.

I started to hate myself more and more. Whether it was my hair, my body, my features.

I don't know when it stopped.

One day, I woke up, and looked in the mirror and fell in love with the color of my eyes. Next day, I fell in love with the way my hair fell. Each day, I fell in love with something more, until there was nothing I hated anymore.

I guess what I'm getting at here, is love yourself.

Each and every single day, look in the mirror until you find something new to love. Fall in love with your eyes, fall in love with your hair, fall in love with your small feet, and short arms. Fall in love with your too big nose, or your uneven eyes.

So many people don't love themselves because they're waiting for someone else to come along and love them.

Don't live your life that way.

Don't gamble your happiness on the love from someone else.

Make your own happiness.

The day that I fell in love with the last thing to love about myself was the day my second life started.

I waited until my last year of high school, and it's been the best year of my life.

I used to count the days until graduation. A freshman, counting for her senior graduation. Now, I don't want it to end. I want more time. I want to spend more time with the culinary kids that I call my family. In the next year, we'll all be doing different things, never seeing each other.

Don't make that mistake.

Start now. Go look, now.

Fall in love with yourself.