When I picture my life, I see joyous hard work. I see a sea of blue gowns and tassels at my high school graduation. I see the summer before college working at my local coffee shop. I see college. I plan to attend Covenant College in Georgia, where I hope to earn my degree in business and play Division three college tennis. I see four years of study sessions at coffee shops and libraries, four years of friends who will become family, and four years of refining my photographic eye so I can pursue my dream as a wedding photographer after I graduate. I see starting my photography business by establishing a social media platform, building clientele, and by networking with photographers in the community and abroad. I see my future traveling to events for work, for which I hope to connect to new people and experience things outside of my comfort zone. I also see my future with family. I see my future with a husband, but I also can see it as a single woman. I see my future with kids, but I also can envision just being the cool single aunt to my nieces and nephews. I’m not sure what type of family I will have in future, but I see my future surrounded by the family I have and the family I will make. I see a bright future, one that I will work hard to create.

I do not know, aside from luck, what the secret to living a long life is, but for whatever amount of time each person is given, living a life of health should be a top priority. A healthy life should include plenty of sleep, quality foods, daily movement, and most importantly- sustainability. For anyone to lead a healthy lifestyle, they must not only practice healthy habits, but they must be able to sustain them through every season of life. Most people when they hear the word “health” think of a bowl of spinach with a side of water. They envision countless hours on the treadmill, saying no to cake on birthdays, and spending hundreds of dollars on “quick-fix” pills and powders. However, the reality of what a healthy lifestyle should look like is actually quite simple and completely sustainable. It is seven to eight hours of sleep, a balanced diet, one which is focused on fueling one’s body with foods that they enjoy and that make them feel energized, and finally, daily activity, which can consist of just taking a simple walk. These healthy practices are small but effective, and can be incorporated into the busiest of schedules, so anyone can sustain them. What is the secret to a healthy life? Not the inconvenient, life-halting, quick fixes that health companies try to peddle to the masses, but small, daily, healthy habits play the most significant role in lifelong health. The world needs to throw out the pills, powders, and fad diets, and learn to embrace habits that allow sustainable, lifelong health.

“Her legs are skinnier” were words that rang in my ears throughout my childhood. As a child who grew up with poor body image and self-worth, I never realized how crippling my negative self-talk could be until my sophomore year in high school where I sank into a deep depression due to an eating disorder. My eating disorder broke me- for a time. I felt crazy in the restrict/binge cycle, and struggled for about a year with my eating disorder before I began to heal by getting help and practicing self-care. The primary way I practice self-care is by taking ownership of my thoughts; challenging them, and working to change them. I stopped telling myself negative narratives. Narratives that told me I would never fit into society’s beauty standards, but rather I started challenging those standards. Who created these standards of an ideal woman? And why are we women so desperate to adhere to them? Mulling over these questions in my mind began to reshape the way I thought about beauty, which changed the way I saw myself and helped heal my relationship with food. Taking control of my thoughts daily is my form of self-care. Each day I grow stronger and stronger mentally, but I still have many opportunities to practice my self-care. Intrusive thoughts are like the neighbor that never stops talking, but I’ve learned from experience that sometimes you have to slam the door on your neighbor of negative thoughts, so that you can live a life of peace and freedom.