Dear Freshman,
As a fellow freshman, I know what it’s like to be going through the tumultuous and turbulent transitions of college. New city, new friends, new social activities– it can all be a little overwhelming, especially with your new sleep schedule (or rather, lack-of-sleep schedule). During this time, it’s so easy to neglect to do all the things you’ve been meaning to, like call home, Skype your best friend, read the new bestseller, or practice your Oscar speech in the mirror when your roommate has class. But we oftentimes forget about the number one most important thing college takes a particularly heavy toll on: our bodies.
You’ve heard upperclassman talk about the notorious “freshman 15” and you’ve probably read countless articles on how to avoid it, fight it, or work it off. Unfortunately, there are several problems with this mindset that may not be immediately apparent. First of all, it’s important to realize that with lifestyle change comes bodily change, whether it’s due to a shift in diet, frequency of hydration, adjustment in exercise patterns, or sleeping patterns. While it’s important to tackle anything that makes you feel ill, it’s also unfair to place yourself in a new environment and expect yourself to maintain control over how your body changes, especially when those changes may be a very natural or even conducive fit to your new lifestyle.
The second (and slightly more apparent) problem with this this idea is that it hostile towards people who don’t fit within society’s criteria of what’s an ideal body size (and trust me guys, that’s most of us) because it’s essentially saying “don’t get fat.” This mentality is particularly hurtful or harmful towards people who don’t classify their figures as “thin” and are have bodies with a natural propensity towards curviness. Though the intensity of the issue is often ignored, our culture has an extremely unfair bias towards girls who aren’t thin. Most people don’t realize that this sort of discrimination is just as bad as sexism, racism, and homophobia, for example, and excludes a very large demographic of people from what’s considered the norm.
But it’s also very important to remember that discrimination exists the other way too. A lot of girls who are naturally smaller are often accused of having some sort of eating disorder and are stigmatized, like curvy girls, for their size. So what in the world are you to do when countless magazines are telling you to shed that freshman 15, but when you do, you’re suddenly blamed for having an eating disorder?
Though the solution is, unfortunately, not simple, it’s extremely important for every girl to consider it. Love your body. Learn your body. Understand what it needs and understand the state in which it’s happiest, whether that means thin, fat, curvy, small, narrow, thick, broad, or something you prefer not to define.
Because every single body is extremely unique and different from all other bodies, there’s no sense in actively putting yourself or anyone else down. So treat yourself well. Exercise regularly if it makes your body feel good, but also eat that double chocolate cupcake that’s what makes your body feel good. Or just do one. They key to success, as I’m sure you know, is a healthy body and a healthy mind and for different people that can mean very different things.
Lots of love,
Mehak