Friday, December 11, 2015

Need, Want, Love.

Being a college student has been consuming my life! Between the stress of quizzes, readings, notes, and now studying for those horrifying finals, I needed a little break. A brain break, so I’m writing to all of you. Funny how the topic of today’s post came to me though, I had to watch a documentary for one of my classes. It was called “Miss Representation”. Long story short, it discussed a lot of social media and how social media is portraying women and their bodies. This is carrying over to women across the world and how they feel they are only worthy based on their body. This obviously hit home for me as the documentary started with girls discussing their eating disorders and how they feel they are only worth what their body portrays.
We all need to be needed. We all want to be wanted. We love to be loved. Speaking on my own behalf, I felt like all those things couldn’t happen if my body wasn’t the way guys wanted or wasn’t attractive. Too many times men (not all men) say they’ll love us for who we are or don’t want us to look like those Victoria Secret Models and yes, some will mean it. But other times this is really hard to believe when they are telling us to gain weight if we’re too skinny, hinting at working out, wishing we had bigger boobs or a nicer butt, or better yet, we’re wiping the drool from their faces as they watch the Victoria Secret Fashion Show.
There is so much pressure in this world for us to look a certain way. It is hard to not give in and all of a sudden feel like we aren’t good enough. Think about it, how many made those “fat jokes” during the Victoria Secret Fashion show or how many girls said something negative about themselves? I'm not shaming those models by any means, a lot of those girls workout really hard to stay in the shape they are, it's their job! But the way girls are allowing these outside influences affect them makes me sick. Your worth does not lie in the way your body looks. What happened to being happy in your own skin? Being confident with what God gave us? Why are we constantly wishing to be like other girls? I’m sure those girls we wish we looked like are wishing something different about themselves. I used to wish so many things about myself were different. We all need to stop wishing and start embracing! You are you, and no one is like you. Embrace that. 
We all need to be needed. We all want to be wanted. We love to be loved. As nice and amazing it is to have all of those from someone else we need to give it to ourselves first. Outside influences, don’t mean anything. Need yourself, want yourself, and love yourself. Find the beauty in yourself and love it. You are human and you need to be loved, just like everything else in this world.


Love, JohannahMichale