Am I Pretty Yet?

Eating disorders are a serious issue within our society. People are constantly trying to fit a certain image that has been publicized to them. I have never personally struggled with having an eating disorder, but I do understand what it feels like to have serious self-esteem issues.   

I feel that eating disorders can be an issue for everyone; female, male, young or old. In this post, however, I will focus on teen girls that have eating disorders. 

One thing I have learned from my 22 years here on this earth is that people are mean and girls in high school are a special breed of mean.

Glee has a character named Marley that I feel perfectly captivates what it feels like to be a teenage girl. 

When I was a teenager I had serious issues with my appearance. I didn't think I was nearly as pretty as the friends I had. They never did anything to make me feel this way, but for some internal reason I still had self-esteem issues. 

I felt as though my hair never looked quite like all of the other girls and I either had too much make-up on or not enough. I would look at the other girls around me and think, "Why can't I look like them?" I felt like I never measured up to those around me. 

I was obsessed with being liked and felt like the only way I could ever be happy is if I was "popular." Thank goodness for my mother. She gave me some great advice when she saw that I was struggling. She told me that being popular is just a mind game and that was a hard pill for me to swallow. I didn't necessarily think this would work but by some miracle my self-esteem began escalating. 

Do I think it is important to be popular? The answer is no. I do not think it is important at all anymore. I drove myself crazy the first few years of high school trying to fit the status quo and eventually realized that the most important thing for me to do was to accept myself for who I was. It was then that I began to have respect for myself, and other's began to as well. 

I did my very best to be kind to other's and help them to know they were awesome for just simply being themselves. I ended up being Prom Queen my Senior year of high school. I felt so honored and to this day I still hope the reasoning for this could have been due to the change I made my Junior year of high school.

I am now married to a wonderful man who tells me I'm beautiful everyday and to this day I still struggle with self-esteem issues every once in a while. It may not ever go away but I try my best everyday to respect myself enough to appreciate my worth.

My message to those who are struggling with eating disorders or self-esteem issues is to try your very best to see that you are worth so much. Being a teen is hard but being an adult is hard as well. Try your best to respect yourself and do your best to respect others. 

My message to those who don't struggle with either of these issues is to remember that even those who appear to have it together could have an internal struggle. Try to be nice to those around you because you never know what they could be going through.  

I wrote this post as a guest for Rachel Abramson's blog and I hope you all will take a look to have a better understanding of this issue. She has great insight on the subject. 

How I Met Your Mother- Who is your Patrice?

I feel that How I Met Your Mother became so popular because of how relatable it is. It is definitely a more dramatic version of reality but still... Most people can relate. I was recently watching the episode where the character Patrice is first introduced and immediately I thought of someone in my life who definitely compares to Patrice.

Patrice is a character that is constantly annoying Robin no matter what.  I love the relationship between Robin and Patrice because I feel that it shows how ridiculous it can look when you are annoyed by someone for no reason.  The person in my life that I think compares to Patrice is probably a wonderful person but I cannot stand them. This may be because at 22 I am already an incredibly grumpy person.

There have also been times in my life where I have felt like I was the "Patrice." It is definitely not a fun experience. Everything I did seemed to annoy this person. I felt as though even my name annoyed them.  So how does one stop annoying someone? I do not know. It probably has something to do with not trying so hard to stop annoying them.

Have you ever had a Patrice in your life? Have you ever felt like you were a Patrice to someone else? Let me know your experiences!

Am I Nick Miller?

New Girl is definitely one of my favorite Netflix shows. I find it absolutely hilarious. The new season was added to Netflix last week (yes, I binge watched the whole entire season last week). While watching New Girl I began to contemplate which character I felt I related most with. I wish that I could say that I related most with Jess (Zooey Deschanel) or Cece (Hannah Simone) but of course I relate to the grumpy, 30-year-old, bartender, Nick Miller. Here are some of the reasons why.

1. Do I even have to explain this? I mean my blog is about comparing my life to Netflix. I obviously watch A LOT of TV.

2. I am married, in college, and work part-time. I. Am. Poor. I can't tell you how many times I've gone to the gas station and only put $10.00 worth of gas in my tank.

3. I'm not a fan of human beings as a whole. There are definitely people I like as individuals. However, people as a whole are the worst! This is probably my issue more than others issues but I really just get so frustrated with people.

4. In most social situations I am very much uncomfortable. It could possibly be because I consider myself to be an introvert. I do not enjoy being around lots of people... At all!

5. I do not dance. Ever.

6. Sometimes being an adult is hard. I wish that I could have stayed a carefree child with zero responsibility.

7. I am not a fan of places that have multiple forms of silverware. It makes me uncomfortable. Once again number three is very relatable for me.

8. Who doesn't relate to this on some level. Sometimes life sucks and other times it definitely does not suck.

9. My definition of a diet.

10. I really need to work on this. I absolutely hate talking about my feelings. Especially when it has to do with me being offended or hurt by something. (Sorry Dallon)

(Images retrieved from Google images)

Paranoid Minds

Criminal Minds was recently added to Netflix.  Due to this, the majority of my free time has been spent watching it. For those of you who have been hiding under a rock the past few years, Criminal minds is a TV show in which FBI agents, referred to as profilers, analyze criminal behavior to determine why the unsub (unknown subject) performs the crimes he does.

Criminal minds has slowly started changing my behavior in two major ways. The first thing it has done is made me incredibly paranoid in my daily life. The second thing it has done is made me feel as though I am now a very knowledgeable profiler.

I am a 5-foot-5-inch, 115 pound female with very little knowledge about self defense. This has always caused me to be a little bit paranoid about safety. Thanks to Criminal Minds my paranoia has been increased. I find myself sitting in a restaurant thinking that the person sitting across from me is definitely staring at me and plotting my murder. I usually come to my senses about 20 minutes later and realize that I am not the center of attention of a murderer, but that I'm simply sitting under a TV that is hanging in the corner. A person can simply smile at me and they are for sure planning to kidnap me.

My husband is a gamer and recently started playing a game called Destiny. When a new video game is released, Dallon tends to enjoy staying up late playing. I typically don't enjoy staying up late because sleep is definitely on my list of top 5 favorites. That being said, I will lay in bed thinking about all the random noises I can hear throughout my old basement apartment. These random noises HAVE to be psychotic murderers here to torture me.

One might ask why I continue to watch Criminal Minds. The answer is simple. I. Just. Can't. Stop. I find this show fascinating. I think it's incredible that there is a group of people that examine why people behave the way they do. A great example could be made out of my paranoia. I am probably more paranoid because of my obsession with Criminal Minds. Which brings me to my second point. I can't stop analyzing why people behave the way they do.  It's ironic, though, that because of a show about profiling, I've been profiling more often due to paranoia, which makes me bad at the profiling in the first place.