Editor, Daily Nexus,

I’d like to take a moment during Eating Disorder Awareness Week to address the theme “Celebrate Your Body.” I challenge everyone to do just that this week. Well, actually I hope everyone does this all 52 weeks of the year, but if not, then now is as good a time as ever to start.

At times it can undoubtedly be difficult to be overzealously upbeat about your body in a place where the sun shines often and swimsuit season is all year long, but celebrating your body goes beyond these factors. It means appreciating what your body does for you rather than how it measures up to the flawless bodies we are constantly bombarded with in the media.

I’m going to celebrate my body because it does amazing things for me like getting me from one place to another and allowing me to experience things like walking on the beach. It makes it possible for me to give and receive hugs and other acts of affection. It aids me in communication, it gives me something to shake when my favorite songs come on. It even accepts and processes everything I put into it…and rumor on the street is that if I want it to, it’ll even act as a baby-making machine!

I mean this is a pretty high-tech instrument that I bet companies, like Microsoft, could sell for a pretty penny, yet I got it for free! In my endeavor to celebrate my body I’m going to remember that the average woman is 5’4” and weighs 145 lbs., yet what the media seems to think is average is somewhere along the lines of 5’9” to 6′ and weighs 110-118 lbs.

Maybe it’s about time we disentangle ourselves from the reality that is created by magazines, television and greedy companies and delve into the reality that humans, by nature, are amazing creatures. I’m going to celebrate my body because it’s the instrument of my life and not just an ornament. I hope everyone takes some time this week, if not every week, to appreciate themselves and the body that works so hard for them.

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