P UTTING MYSELF FIRST

Exploring what self-love means to students

BY STEPHANIE ZHANG

To me, self-love is a mix of being very accepting of myself, while also being forgiving,” senior Krupa Shanware said. “I think more than anything, [it’s] about not judging yourself for who you are.”

Shanware believes that earlier in high school, her understanding of what self-love meant to her was misconstrued, as she thought of it as simply looking good in order to seem more confident. However, her understanding of self-love eventually evolved.

Forced to spend more time by herself during quarantine, Shanware says she was able to be more aware of her subconscious thoughts about herself. Once she realized she was being her own worst critic, she started working to reverse that mindset.

“So far, my journey has been [about] finding peace within myself and knowing who I am,” Shanware said. “For me, it’s [about having] 100% acceptance of myself and loving myself in every stage of my life, regardless of if it’s when I’m anxious, sad or when I’m [feeling] on top of the

Social media was previously a root cause of Shanware’s negative selftalk, but she says that with her new mindset, she’s realized that social media often depicts a glamourized version of life and that her social media statistics don’t determine her selfworth.

“With social media, you’re constantly thinking about likes, comments [and] all [of] those numbers,” Shanware said. “It’s really difficult herself to others.

“I try to remind myself that everyone is different in their own ways and that social media [can be] really fake at times,” Wu said. However, with the recent popularity of short-form content where creators are more raw and authentic with their lives, or through platforms such as BeReal, Wu believes that social media has been starting to encourage more selflove.

“Now, a lot of content creators and influencers show their true selves instead of the edited or photoshopped versions of themselves,” Wu said. “I think [social media’s] improving slowly and a lot of people are coming out of that comfort zone and trying to show their original selves, which has been helping everyone be more confident with themself.” his life. Ang says that as he started to take soccer more seriously, he could see how that translated into other aspects of his life.

Alongside viewing more positive content on social media platforms, Wu practices self-love in various ways. She enjoys listening to music, writing things down in a journal or simply talking to her friends, which she says is one of the most effective forms of self-love.

“Talking about your thoughts to a friend is a really important form of self-love, because not only can you express yourself to other people, but you can also listen to their advice, which can really help you regardless of what your situation is,” Wu said.

My Parents

P RANAY G ANGARAM

Practicing self-love varies from person to person, and sophomore Joshua Ang believes that his main form of self-love is through playing soccer. Ang believes that playing soccer has provided him with a sense of security, as he knows that no matter what, he can always turn to the sport to distract him from anything else going on in

“As I started to play soccer competitively, I gained more confidence in my skills [and] my confidence outside of the game also increased,” Ang said. “Soccer has shown me that I am capable of excelling at something, and that’s really helped me have more self-love.”

While soccer has always been in Ang’s life, practicing self-love has been newer for junior Pranay Gangaram. Similar to Shanware, he believes that his previous understanding of what self-love meant to him was inaccurate. Instead of viewing it as an appreciation of oneself, he used it as an excuse to be self-centered.

“When I was younger I cared about myself a lot more, but as I grew up, my parents have taught me the difference between loving myself and being selfish,” Gangaram said.

Now, Gangaram views self-love as a positive way of thinking. As his mindset has changed, he believes his relationships with others, as well as with himself, have significantly improved.

“Self-love is taking care of yourself and making sure that you put yourself in front of others, while also not being selfish,” Gangaram said. “It’s more of self-care, and also not focusing too much on the bad parts of yourself because even if you mess up once, you don’t need to fixate on that.”