Broad Spectrum

It’s a fact of life: women have body hair. Yes, I said it. We have body hair. Why does this topic make people so uncomfortable when our own bodies naturally grow it? Why is it socially acceptable for men to have body hair and not women? Why do we have to go through the agonizing process of shaving? These are questions that I have often pondered, and I can’t seem to come up with good reasons as to why girls shave their leg, armpit, and pubic hair. All I do know is society is brainwashing us into thinking our own body hair is gross and unsightly.

As women’s skirts began to rise in the 1920s, so did (literally) the rise of shaving. Society decided women’s legs should be smooth and hairless. But why? Up until the 1920s women did not even think of picking up a razor and shaving the hair on their bodies. Their hair was accepted because it was unseen by the public eye. If you think about it, body hair is not a masculine quality. Female bodies grow it as well.

Why does society think it’s okay to make women revert back to looking like prepubescent girls? We are not children. We are women. Body hair is a physical sign of womanhood. It’s natural. It’s raw. And it’s beautiful. The standards of beauty that are projected today are unrealistic and damaging to our generation of young girl’s. Society makes us believe that we have to look a certain way to be considered beautiful. (Pick up a copy of Seventeen Magazine and you will see.) But it’s not true. If you believe you are beautiful, that confidence will radiate through your inner being and shine out in beams all around you. Confidence is the key.

Now, I am not saying that all of you must burn your razors and bras. I am not some sort of radical hippie who is trying to make you conform to my ways. I am merely bringing to your attention some of my own personal thoughts. For a long time I struggled with my own body image issues. I took up running last year to try and lose weight, but I got discouraged after about three months. After that, I began to gain all of the weight I had lost, back. I went into a slight depression. I hated trying on clothes and looking in the mirror. But a couple of months ago, I decided that enough is enough. I started my own personal campaign of total self love and acceptance. Now I am not saying I am totally, 100% comfortable with my body. I still get the occasional thought of self-doubt. But I am much better than I was. My first step on that journey was to stop shaving for a while and learn to love my honest, God-given body. If you only take one thing away from this article, take this: You don’t have to shave, lose weight, or wear certain clothes to be beautiful. You ARE beautiful. You are uniquely YOU. Do not let society control your confidence. YOU ARE IN CONTROL.

-Olivia Hendrick

It's dark and lonely. It's a place that no one wants to be, but it's the hardest thing to get out of: Depression. It's a never-ending cycle. But only if you let it be. For me, Depression is like a little monster that follows me everywhere I go. When I wake up in the morning, he tells me to stay in bed where no one can hurt me. When I want to play guitar, or clarinet, or sing he tells me that I don't REALLY enjoy those things. I'm never the one that asks people to hang out because my depression tells me no one wants to hang out with me.

But I have good days. And so can you. When you wake up in the morning and that little monster tells you not to get out of bed, as uncomfortable as it feels, get out of bed. Stretch. Reach your arms as high as they'll go. Once you've reached the highest you think you can go, go higher. Take a warm bath. Cry if you need to. But if depression tells you to self-harm, get out of the bath immediately and rub ice cubes where you typically self-harm. The urges will go away. Take long, deep breaths. If depression tells you not to go outside, go for a walk. If depression tells you not to call a friend, call a friend. If they're busy PLEASE remember that it's not your fault. People are busy, yes, but that does NOT mean that they don't want to hang out with you. Remember that.

You are loved. You are beautiful. You are strong. And you have a light inside of you. Don't let depression cover your light. It's beautiful and it's warm and it's loving and it's bright. It will help you. Stay strong and don't forget to love yourself.

Be kind to one another.

-Dani Marie

A whirlwind of eclectic insanity composes what adults have pinned as the “teenage years.” We are just a bunch of hormone raging, juvenile delinquents with lots of time on our hands. And it’s during this period of our lives when we must make some of the hardest decisions we have ever had to make, like answering the ever present question “what am I going to do for the rest of my life?” This being my senior year, that question is more relevant than ever. With the pressure of college decisions looming in the air, anxiety and stress have started to creep in. I will admit it, I am scared for my future. I want to know exactly what I am supposed to do with my life. I want a perfect yellow brick road carved out for me. I want a cherub to float down from the heavens and bestow upon me a glass bottle that contains my destiny. But as of late, I have had no such luck. I have been stuck in this rut of not knowing what I want to do for a couple of months now. I thought I had it figured out. I really believed that I wanted to get an undergraduate degree in a science, go to medical school, and become a doctor. I looked into all the programs, knew the hard work it would take to get there, and calculated how my family could finance undergraduate and medical school. But in early October, I woke up one day and was not excited about the thought of becoming a doctor. In fact, I was frightened. Thinking about being a doctor every day for the rest of my life made me a little bit nauseous. Even more than that, realizing I did not know what I wanted to do with my life petrified me. I felt like I had to know right then what career path to take. After all, it’s my senior year of high school! I need some sort of inkling of an IDEA of what I want to do, or rather, what I am meant to do. The thought of being alone and trapped on this island of indecisiveness consumed me, and it has eaten at me for the past months. It has gnawed and chewed and even kicked until I realized:

It’s OKAY to not know what I am doing.

I do not have a time limit on deciding what I want to do! I do have to declare a major of course, but I can take lots of classes and find something really interesting. What career I pick now does not determine the outcome of the rest of my life. If you do know what you want to do, that is awesome! I commend you for having such a passion for something that you know for sure your path! BUT, if you do not know what you want to do, that is okay too! People who do not know are not the freaks of society. I have realized that it is completely normal to not know what your calling is. I have decided to stop worrying so much about the future, enjoy my senior year, and take life one day at a time.

-Olivia Hendrick