What does it mean to love yourself? Not just to accept your flaws, but to wholeheartedly love everything about yourself. If there's one thing I've learned being a 21 year old female in college and living in today's society, loving yourself is definitely not easy. People say that in order for someone else to love you, you have to love you first. I never really thought much about that statement, but I've come to realize that there's nothing more true. But what does that mean exactly?

Loving yourself means knowing what you deserve. And let me tell you, you deserve nothing but the best. When it comes to guys, you know your standards and you shouldn't change them for anyone. You may not know exactly what you want from a relationship, but you know what you don't want. This is key. Of course, you didn't wake up with this knowledge. It comes over time. You'll figure it out, especially through the process of trial and error. But self-respect and self-love are like peanut butter and jelly. If you love yourself, you also respect yourself. Respect yourself enough to accept only the greatest.

Loving yourself also means that you can be alone and not be lonely. You can actually enjoy your own company. This doesn't make you a loner, it just means you can stand to be alone and not need someone else there to make you feel worthy. If you enjoy your own company, then you know someone else can enjoy your company. Know that you are awesome and find someone that is worthy of your time. Trust me, there have been numerous times where I've had to force myself to put my phone down and not let myself text some boy to come over and hang out. Now a days, there's a whole new stigma surrounding, "let's hangout." You know that who ever comes over is expecting more than a chill session. Feeling like someone wants you is one of the best highs out there, but as soon as they leave, that leaves with it. It is definitely not worth your time or your disappointment and as soon as you realize that your time and your conversations are more valuable than someone who wants to "just hangout" for an hour, you will put your phone down. You will have this epiphany of self-love and you will never look back.

That brings us to the next step of loving yourself. Forgiveness. This may be one of the hardest things to do, but it's by far one of the most important. We're all human, we all make mistakes. It's okay. What's not okay is if you can't let it go. You have to learn to forgive yourself or you will never find peace. You can't control whether or not someone else can forgive you. Giving yourself inner peace and accepting what you've done is so important in finding self-love. But what's also important is learning from your mistakes so that you can improve yourself and build a stronger you.

I have struggled with the concept of self-love for most of my teenage years, as many young girls do. I admire the women and girls who respect their bodies and their hearts. It is not an easy thing to do, but if there's one thing I know now that I didn't before, it's that everyone is capable of creating love within themselves. The only person you will ever truly have in this lifetime is you. Why waste your time and heartache on people who don't see the true beauty within you when you can see it clear as day. Never forget that you are special and you deserve to be loved. Especially by you.