By Misael Gomez, Sports Editor
To some people, self love may seem like something that’s too selfish or materialistic. But, in all honesty, self love is not exactly what it’s typically perceived to be. Self love doesn’t mean only caring for and doing things to please yourself, but rather it means to be confident, comfortable, and at balance with yourself. Self love means to surround yourself by those who care about you, even if it’s just yourself, if it means you as a human can achieve happiness.
Loving yourself isn’t the same as loving your parents, your friends, or your significant other, as it’s more about doing things that make yourself happy rather than doing things that make someone else happy. However, you can’t just say you love yourself and expect everything around you to change. Just like forming relationships with others, you have to take time and effort to care for this relationship. One of the best ways to build up self love is by gaining confidence. This confidence is achieved through personally recognizing your own accomplishments without needing to hear validation from others. It may seem difficult at first, as you may feel like you’re being cocky or selfish by flaunting your successes, but as long as you don’t rub every accomplishment in other peoples faces, it could have a glowing impact on other peoples opinions on you. However, you must keep in mind that there will always be “haters”. You may get glares from others or hear them talking behind your back, but it’s important to understand that their judgement comes from a place of jealousy. As long as you are happy with the way you are carrying yourself, the opinions of others will naturally fade away from your life.
The most important thing to remember is that the truest form of self love is being yourself. This gradually comes with time and surrounding yourself with people who want the best for you and your well being, even if it means you are the only person around you. A lot of people take self care for granted, but you have to remember that at the end of the day, you’re the only person who should decide how you want to carry your life and what/who you want to carry it with. It may sound selfish, but putting everything aside for your well being is a natural thing that comes with loving who you are.
Self love is a very achievable goal that every human being should strive to set for themselves. It can start by giving yourself compliments and wearing the clothes you want to wear. That leads to finding people who like you for who you are, which expands into having confidence in yourself and ultimately being yourself. These are just examples, as every person has their own journey to finding themselves. It just takes a little bit of time and effort to find the love you need within you. The Thunderbolt wishes everyone a great rest of the school year, and self love to all.
