Summer is fast approaching, which for many of means Myrtle is coming up, which for many of us is the light at the end of a bitterly dark tunnel of exams and papers and presentations. It's the culmination of months of nights spent in Martin, late night and early morning drives to Sheetz and far too much coffee for a twenty year old body to handle. It's a week of fun and flirty beach time with people who haven't seen the light of day since what feels like Spring Break. It's also a time of heavy insecurities- finals week can throw you off of your weekly workout routine, have you sitting in a library for hours on end, and eating junk food because "you deserve it to get through the night" (which you 100% do), and heading to the beach for a week may sound daunting, and for the vast majority of college-aged students, it is scary. It's full of what feels like judgement, and comparisons, and insecurities. Your "Myrtle Diet" didn't go quite like you thought it might, but that's ok. Because nobody wears you better than you do. And it would be utopian to live in a society where outer beauty takes the trunk to inner, but we have to work hard to get there, and it'll take time.

But there's no universal perfection, it's impossible. There is the perfection that media has constructed for us, has driven into our heads as necessary to be "beautiful". But the thing about that is, since there doesn't exist a perfect, there can't be an imperfect. Everything that we are is everything that we should be, and what's pretty cool is that in a world of billions of people, there is only one you. And that's something to celebrate. There is more living in you than there are humans on this earth, and that's pretty incredible. And loving your body is about so much more than loving what you look like in a bathing suit.

So with that, I'm starting something- starting something for myself, for everybody and every body. Whether or not you're going to Myrtle, it's important. When we talk about bodies, we have to talk about them in function- not about, but how. Compliment each other on something else, on kindness or successes, anything. Don't equate food with shame, no matter what it is. Don't talk about other people's bodies- don't even bring it up. Workout because running is a good stress relief, and maybe you love to sweat; eat well because it feels good to eat good. Do it for yourself, and not for anyone else.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sarah-koppelkam/body-image_b_3678534.html

Read this, and apply it to yourself, and your friends, and you siblings, and again to yourself. And add your name to the signatures because you won't make comments that degrade, shame, or judge any body, including your own