P UTTING MYSELF FIRST Exploring what self-love means to students
BY STEPHANIE ZHANG
T
o 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 world.”
14 EL ESTOQUE | FEBRUARY 2023
Social media was previously a root herself to others. cause of Shanware’s negative self“I try to remind myself that everyone talk, but she says that with her new is different in their own ways and that mindset, social media s h e ’ s [can be] realized really fake that social at times,” media often Wu said. depicts a However, glamourized with the version of life r e c e n t and that her popularity of social media short-form statistics content d o n ’ t w h e r e determine creators her selfare more worth. raw and “ W i t h a u t h e n tic S ENIOR social media, with their K RUPA S HANWARE y o u ’ r e lives, or constantly through thinking platforms about likes, such as comments BeReal, Wu [and] all believes [of] those that social n u m b e r s ,” media has Shanware said. “It’s really difficult been starting to encourage more selfto not let those things impact love. how you see yours “Now, a lot of content creators elf or how you view yourself and influencers show their true selves among other people. So instead of the edited or photoshopped another thing that I’ve been versions of themselves,” Wu said. “I trying to unlearn is [to not] think [social media’s] improving slowly look at the number of likes and a lot of people are coming out of on your post or compare that comfort zone and trying to show other [peoples’] bodies to their original selves, which has been your own because none of helping everyone be more confident those things should have with themself.” any impact on me.” Alongside viewing more positive For sophomore Lotus content on social media platforms, Wu Wu, being on social practices self-love in various ways. media has been a similar She enjoys listening to music, writing negative experience. Wu things down in a journal or says that as she dove simply talking to her friends, deeper into using social which she says is one media, she too fell down of the most effective the loophole of comparing forms of self-love.
SELF-LOVE IS A MIX OF BEING VERY ACCEPTING OF MYSELF, WHILE ALSO BEING FORGIVING.