Caity Healy | Lifestyle Editor

I can remember the day when I first realized that my self-confidence was next to nonexistent. I was in seventh grade; I saw my school picture and immediately felt a wave of discouragement wash over me. I was suddenly uncomfortable with myself and my appearance. My confidence plummeted and continued to worsen with time.

In the grand scheme of things, this may seem to be a miniscule problem. However, people don’t realize just how detrimental it can be. My lack of confidence would keep me from doing anything slightly past my comfort zone; it would negatively affect my relationships, as not believing in myself led me to distrust anyone who said they did. It forced me to be extremely cautious about what I chose to wear.

The plague of self-doubt seeped into the foundation of my life, and I felt like at any moment I would crack.

It wasn’t until my first year at Western that things began to turn around. I was thrown into this new environment surrounded by a sea of unfamiliar faces, not knowing a single person. I knew then that I had to find a way to build my confidence.

I began developing new habits; I set aside time in my days to pick outfits that I love, do my makeup in ways that I prefer wearing it and I created a daily workout schedule that I knew I could stick to. I did things that I knew would help me feel confident. Slowly, but surely, it started working.

Today I wouldn’t say that my confidence is impeccable. I have days where it’s an intense struggle, other days, I walk with my head high and bear a proud smile on my face that I truly mean. I can’t deny that it still finds ways to have negative effects on aspects of my life, but thankfully I have an incredibly supportive group of people surrounding me who are patient, kind and understanding.

My advice to anyone struggling with the same thing is to find things that you love doing, and do them unapologetically. Find people who will support you through it all. And remind yourself everyday about how amazing you are, and why you deserve to be confident.

Contact the author at chealy16@wou.edu