Flashback to my junior high days.

I was born with thick eyebrows and I have hair that pops up in unwanted places (like my lip). Not only did I have this going on for me but I also had a nose too big for my face and then later on I got braces. I was what we would consider now, a hot mess. Or at least I thought I was.

Flash forward to my freshman year of high school. I finally started getting my eyebrows and lip waxed, but still had the braces. I still felt so awful about myself and felt as if I was the ugliest person ever. I was twig thin and awkward with a mouth full of metal. At the time I thought it was the roughest patch I had ever hit.

Looking onward to my junior year of high school, the braces finally came off. I had a pretty smile for the first time in three years and I instantly felt better about myself. For once, I actually felt really pretty. It was a great feeling.

Senior year I felt just as good about myself. My body weight was ideal, my stomach was flat, and I was in a lot better shape. Freshman year of college came and I felt pretty all of the time. Slowly I started to realize just how bad I was eating though and that I had almost achieved the freshman fifteen. It kept going downhill from there.

Sophomore year of college comes and I start out at an ideal weight. As the year goes on though I notice my flat stomach is no more and that I had gained an immense amount of weight. My face became puffier and I no longer could just depend on my natural metabolism to work anymore.

Now it's the summer before my junior year of college and I'm working on bettering myself and am doing my best to get in shape. Some people might still look at me and say that I'm still relatively skinny in certain ways but to me I notice all of the changes about me. I see someone completely different when I look in the mirror. I don't always feel pretty all of the time anymore, but I know I'm doing what I can to better myself.

We can be our own biggest motivators when we feel happy and are content with how things are going. But we can also be our own biggest critics. We notice everything about ourselves that is changing, every crack and crevice.

The point of my article isn't to tell everyone about my past and describe what I looked like. My point is that no matter how you're feeling at certain stages in life, one day, you'll be sitting on the couch as a 20-year-old, thinking back to your junior high self and realizing it wasn't that bad. I should have just loved myself rather than beating myself up about everything. One day you'll look back and realize all of the times that you felt bad about yourself could have gone differently if you would have just realized that the way you feel about yourself right now isn't going to last forever.

Always love yourself for who you are. Always love yourself no matter what body weight you are, no matter what your eyebrows look like, no matter what, just love yourself, damnit. Because you are always worth it and a year from now you'll look back and think why did I feel that way?

Love yourself and all of your imperfections.