CAREER: PRINCIPAL/SUPERINTENDENT Name: Noelle Short Age: 34 College & major: Hamilton College – Major: Government; Minor: Environmental Studies Graduate school & concentration (if applicable): Master of Arts in English from Middlebury College’s Bread Loaf School of English; working on a Certificate of Advanced Study in Educational Leadership from SUNY Plattsburgh – anticipated completion in May […]
CAREER: VETERINARIAN Name: Mila Christen Age: 32 College & major: SUNY Geneseo, BS in Business Administration and Psychology Graduate school & concentration (if applicable): Cornell University, MS in Animal Science, concentration in Reproductive Physiology Cornell University, DVM. As a veterinarian I am licensed to practice with any species, but I focused on small animals and […]
CAREER: ART TEACHER (CURRENTLY TRAVELING ABROAD!) Name: Leah Gooch Age: 30 College & major: SUNY New Paltz, Art Education Graduate school & concentration: CUNY Brooklyn, Art Education Previous jobs: Filer in my dad’s medical office, Bus girl, Waitress Current occupation: Art Teacher How did you become involved in art education? I always wanted to be a teacher. I used […]
Your body does not look like hers. Do you want it to?
How many minutes have you spent analyzing your body into nothingness? How many hours does that add up to in a lifetime?
We all compare our bodies. As a visual culture hyped up on the over-sexualized female form, it’s easy to forget that your body is capable of much more than merely delighting the fancies of passer-bys. And maybe we are reared that way from the get go; a new study indicates that when your parents comment on weight – for better or worse – it is more likely to have an impact on how you view your body later in life. According to a recent New York Times article, girls are particularly poised for emotional destruction in response to weight-centric language.
Surveying over 500 women in their 20’s and 30’s, the research suggested that regardless of a woman’s actual BMI, those who recalled their parents making statements about their size as teens were more prone to believing they needed to lose 10-20 lbs – living in a continual state of body dissatisfaction.
Rebecca Puhl, deputy director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at the University of Connecticut, summarized: “…girls are exposed to so many messages about thinness and body weight, and oftentimes women’s value is closely linked to their appearance. If parents don’t challenge those messages, they can be internalized.”
Feeling dissatisfied or shame about your body is inevitable when the societal focus – especially the scrutiny of loved ones – is set on ideal physical standards of beauty. If you experience unwanted comments about your body, it’s important to point out that these comments are unhelpful to you, and strategize ways to better communicate (or better yet, not communicate about your weight, specifically, at all!) Instead, the focus should be on on doing something – not saying something. Engaging in active, healthy activities together like bowling or hiking is a great way to shift the discussion from weight and instead focus on strengthening your relationships, and feeling good about yourself, for something other than mere appearance.
Develop your talents. Nourish your mind. Our bodies are capable of so much more than meets the eye; comparing yourself to “her” will never measure up. What can your body do? Let’s start there.
In a romantic relationship, it’s pretty cut and dry in terms of your status: on or off, in love or out, together or broken up. The boundaries are typically set and ‘Facebook official.’ But what about when it comes to a friendship? Particularly when a couple of once-besties begins to drift – or worse, one friend starts to drift and the other is still deeply invested in the relationship?
Multiple scenarios can exist in which you no longer desire to maintain a friendship with someone: 1. Your friend makes you feel badly about yourself (i.e. making mean comments about your weight or appearance, gossiping about you to others, pressuring you to engage in uncomfortable behaviors), 2. Your friend is unreliable or selfish (never keeps a promise, only wants to talk about herself, flirts with your romantic interests), or 3. You no longer feel you have common interests and find your friend to be more irritating as you grow up.
GRADUATE TRACK: MEDICAL SCHOOL Name: Hannah Conway Age: 23 College/ Major & Minor: Notre Dame College, Environmental Chemistry and Ecology, Biology. How did you choose the college you attended, and what factors influenced that decision? I was actually settled on not going to college until I started to get offers to play college lacrosse. I chose Notre Dame College over another […]
CAREER: PEACE CORPS & NON PROFIT PUBLIC SERVICE Name: Sehee Chung Age: 33 College & major: Smith College, Studio Art Graduate school & concentration: NYU Wagner, Master of Public and Nonprofit Administration, International focus Past jobs: First job was at Honey Baked Ham Company when I was 15. Then worked at Victoria’s Secret, which I hated. I […]
With college acceptances pouring in for seniors, and juniors beginning to narrow the list down to the golden ten, it’s likely you’ve already sat through the lectures about how to choose a college that is a best fit for your future. But what are the elements to avoid? Here are a few reasons to be weary of choosing that particular school – for that particular reason.
Don’t Follow You-Know-Who. You have dated #SoAndSo for four years; six if you count the months spent checking their Facebook wall in middle school. But following your love life to college is possibly the worst reason to choose your alma mater. Deciding on which college to spend the next four years of your life should be a truly individual decision. Factoring in your high school romance will only result in making huge compromises on your future – a future that may not even include your current sweetheart past freshman orientation. As much as it may hurt to be separated from your current boyfriend or girlfriend, it is important to make a pragmatic decision based on your own personal and academic goals. In the worst case scenario, you will just have to be apart a few weeks at a time until Fall Break…and Thanksgiving Break…and then the long Winter Break (college has A LOT of breaks.) Tolerable, and you will each have space to grow and become your best selves. Great case scenario, you will grow apart relatively pain free and end up meeting a lot of really interesting and attractive new people, but you and your ex can still spy on each other via Instagram. Win win!
As warmer weather approaches, many women begin to consider how their bodies might look in the light of day after being comfortably shielded in sweatshirts and stretchy jeans for the better part of the last six months. In theory, it’s best practice not to give a damn about how you might compare to that celebrity in a bikini frolicking across a beach in Cabo – because most of it is unrealistic anyway (photo. shop.) But whether we agree with societal body shaming and industry standards or not, these images and the hyper-sexualization of women have a real effect on how we view ourselves.
It’s almost impossible to consider that the majority of your life will be lived outside of the confines of high school, and the haze of block scheduling and after school commitments and hallway drama will become a lumpy blur of “that time I was a teenager.” High school is a life lived in brief yet intense duration. It seems like forever; but once you are out, four years feels more like the span of growing out your bangs than an accurate measurement of time. That said, it’s also condescending for any adult to act like adolescence – especially your high school years – aren’t that important in the grand scheme of things. They are. Extremely important. But for all of the right reasons – not the kinds that involve unrequited love or acne.
The true importance of high school boils down to two things: Who you choose to be friends with during this time, and how seriously you take your school work. These elements set the stage for who you become long term.
Petal + Sass 