After my first year of college, I came home feeling exhausted and down on myself. Between the stress of school, friends, and guys I felt like I had nothing else to give. I didn’t know how to begin to rebuild myself and my confidence.
About a month into Summer, I decided it was time to focus on myself and the things I’ve always wanted. I spent the rest of the Summer working 40 hours a week, umpiring softball games at night, and dedicating myself to the gym. I cut off anyone in my life who wasn’t helping me in my journey to be the best version of myself.
My bank account grew, I lost 25 pounds, and I started to feel more like the woman I deserved to be. I started rebuilding relationships with friends and family because I finally felt like I had a healthy relationship with myself. The kind of relationship I had always wanted, a relationship where I loved myself– flaws and all.
It took about two months for me to start reintroducing people into this new, self-love lifestyle. During this time, I stopped talking to my boyfriend of now six months. Guess what? He waited for me while I rebuilt my confidence. He understood how important it was for me to love myself before I could love him.
I’m not sharing my story to tell everyone how great my relationship is. Nor am I sharing to say how much I love myself now, because self-love is a process and journey throughout one’s entire life. I’m sharing this because taking the time to make self love a priority completely changed my life, my relationships, and my mentality. I’m sharing this because it’s important for everyone to take the time they need to achieve the goals they have set for themselves. If people around you can’t respect that then they don’t deserve to be in your life. The people who desire to be in your life, and deserve to be there, will wait and want the best for you.
If you remember one thing from reading this, I want you to remember that your body is a temple. Your mental state is where you have to stay for the rest of your life. Just as you treat your home with respect and cherish your possessions within it, you should be treating yourself the same way. Only you have the privilege to live within yourself, so treat yourself with love, kindness, and respect and only allow others to treat you the same.