As I've grown older, I've come to a lot of wise realizations that I wished I had learned earlier on in life, but I'm still young and I guess I should look at it the other way around and be gracious that I've come to this realization at this age.

I personally have struggled with the battle of self-love for a large portion of my life, and I was constantly comparing myself to other people and harping on things about myself that made me unhappy or nitpick little things I didn't like. Now, I know how unhealthy this sounds and how easy it is to say, "stop doing this", but I had said it a million times to myself, yet always caught myself doing it over and over. "Why can't I look like this girl?","Why are my thighs so big?", "Why can't I have clearer skin?'"- These were just a few of the raging thoughts that I would let control my mind as I'd basically destroy my confidence, in a sense.

About two years ago, I started to realize that people and my friends around me seemed to be pretty content with themselves and who they were. Of course, it's natural to want to change certain little things about yourself because it's inevitably human nature, but each individual should love themselves and feel confident anyways (not focusing on the things that they can't change, and focusing on changing the things that they can).

I soon after literally woke up one day and realized something in my life really needed to change. Little did I know, as the girl I was two years ago, that what I so desperately needed was to learn to love myself.

I then made a promise to myself to work on myself all around- working out more, spending time with people I cared about, taking better care of not only my physical appearance but my mental state as well and bettering where I was at.

I stuck to this promise I made to myself two years ago, and now I can't believe the girl I used to be is in a sense what made the person I am now. If you've known me since before I started this self-journey, then I think we can agree to CONFIDENTLY say it has been a hell of a stroll to self-love, but truly changed everything for me.

I couldn't even compare where I'm at now to where I was two years ago, but I couldn't be any happier with the person I have become today. It hasn't been easy to get to where I'm at now, but I have finally learned to love myself, and I genuinely think that the world learns to love those more that are able to love themselves.

So next time you're crying over a boy (or girl) and asking the higher power or whatever it is you believe in (or not), to put someone new into your life for you to love, ask yourself if that person in your life, needs to be you...

Self-love is the greatest love I've currently learned to have.