I've heard it a million times, and I'm sure you have to: "You have to love yourself before you can love someone else." At first, you may just let that cliche go in one ear and out the other; I know I did. Honestly, I pretty much thought it was total crap. I had always felt like it was a lot easier to love others more than I could even think about loving myself. And of course on my off days, my friends and family would tell me how great I was, or that I wasn't the problem in a certain situation, but I figured they were just saying these things because they had to, right? I knew I wasn't a total waste of space, but I didn't ever feel like a total sparkling prize, either.

But one day as I was scrolling through Pinterest (my favorite way to procrastinate) I came across this cute little quote:

I read this quote, and then I read it again, and again. It finally clicked... How others feel about me should not affect the way I feel about myself. As that simple thought settled its way into my mind, I began to look through others' words, searching for the words I had always needed to hear, but couldn't find. I always figured the "I Love Myself" mentality was somewhat conceited, and who would want to label themselves that way?

As my scrolling continued, I began to actually comprehend all of these ideas that I had more than likely come across before, but maybe wasn't ready to understand. During these times when I was determined to not be content with wherever life had taken me. Then I found another little blurb that blew my mind:

And once again, I found myself reading this sentence over and over and over again. It was so right. Who came up with this idea that loving yourself was a bad thing? Who kept passing along this concept that being unique and being yourself wasn't cool and acceptable? If there is no one else in the entire world like you, why in the world (literally) would you want to be anyone but yourself?

So one night, laying in bed, procrastinating against laundry and loads of homework, I decided to love myself more. Or at least try to, because as I've found since then, it's not always the easiest thing to do. Since I made that simple, conscious decision, I've had to remind myself daily that loving myself is not only something that I should do, but also remind myself how much happier I've been, in every facet of life, since I chose to make loving myself a priority.

With the everyday hustle and bustle we call college life -- work, a full-time class schedule, sorority hoopla, studying, cramming, and more studying -- I decided to make a list of goals for myself. #RelationshipGoals, right? Yes. Relationship goals for one of the most important and the longest relationships I'll ever have -- the one with myself.

1. Accept yourself, flaws and all. Once you learn to accept yourself, your need for acceptance from others will start to dwindle.

2. Remember that "good enough" and "perfection" are not the same. Part of learning to love yourself is learning to understand that you don't have to be your definition of perfection or anyone else's definition of perfection to be good enough. Perfection is not required, nor achievable. We're human.

3. Let yourself feel every emotion. The good ones, the bad ones, and the ugly ones. There's not a single thing wrong with completely feeling the emotions others make you feel. As S. Moon said, "You are beautiful because you let yourself feel, and that is a brave thing indeed."

4. You are complete on your own. You are not half of a heart, looking for another. You are a whole, distinctly unique, individual. A great relationship will complement you, not complete you, and there is such a different between the two.

5. Be forgiving, but not forgetful of yourself and of others. Remind yourself, however often you may need, that you are human. And guess what? Humans mess up every day, even the ones who we have made out to be flawless in our minds. If you find yourself in a situation where you may be the cause of pain to your own heart, remove yourself. Then accept that it's okay, and make a conscious effort to avoid situations like that in the future. In the same way, remember that everyone around you is human too. They struggle, their hearts hurt, and they may unintentionally hurt you. With time, wholeheartedly forgive them. They probably need it, but never forget what happened in order to save yourself from unnecessary harm in the future.

Don't get me wrong, I struggle to love myself every single day. I see people around me who seem to be effortlessly happy all the time, and can't help but to be jealous. However, what I do know, and what I've finally started to understand, is that I am worth the time and effort it takes to make myself happy. And oh, I cannot tell you what a joyous feeling that is. I'll leave you with this:

"I am proud of the woman I am today, because I went through one hell of a time becoming her." -- Unknown