When asked to write under the category of relationships, I struggled immensely because how can a girl with no relationship experience write about ideal relationships? Especially in relationships with a partner. I had absolutely no clue what to write about. My original idea was to write about my summer fling and complain about how I’m utterly and stupidly in love with a fool who has a girlfriend but I scrapped that idea because well, it sucked. So I decided to update my relationship status. I am currently in a relationship with myself and while I may have some issues maintaining my status, I am still thriving.
I am currently eighteen and I have struggled with the ideal body image more than once throughout my life. I have had those thoughts of “I’m not pretty enough” or the thought that maybe I should lose some weight to look like the other girls. It wasn’t until my junior year of high school when my confidence began to soar and I realized that my life is meant to be lived by myself and not by another person. I am a huge fan of the Korean boy group, BTS, and one of their main themes as a group is the promotion of self-love and self-actualization. Like so many of their fans, also known as ARMY’s, it was through BTS that I started to develop a love for myself. When I use the word ‘love’ I don’t mean in a conceited or vain way, I mean in the way of self-love. I learned to love who I was, imperfections and all.
A key part of creating a stable relationship with oneself is realizing why your so-called “imperfections” are so imperfect. Why does that slope in your nose that you hate so much seem so detrimental to your beauty? Why do you think your stretch marks seem like disgusting scars? Why do you think these things? These so-called imperfections are what make you, you. You are beautiful and unique. Anything you call an imperfection is really only a coin amongst your riches.
Being in a relationship with yourself is a daily struggle because we all have those days where we feel like a potato and we don’t have the motivation to do anything with ourselves. The struggle will always be a present problem for anyone, even those with the most self-confidence. But this struggle will become easier to deal with. Self love is a path that is necessary to take despite how many rocks are on it. So, I suggest you turn up the music in your earbuds, do your makeup, put on the outfit that makes you feel like a king or queen and you take on the world, one minute at a time. And in the words of Korean superstars, “The me of yesterday, me of today and me of tomorrow, with no exceptions, it’s all me.”