Here we go again.

It’s bathing suit season

and

I

am

dreading it.

How can it be that there are adult women in this world that look fantastic in a suit?

Like they never

birthed a baby

or breast-fed three

or ever ate 25 chicken wings in one sitting?

How can it be that there women out there who

don’t order truffle fries every single time they’ve had a few drinks

or women who don’t ever eat a whole pizza

or order a porterhouse with a loaded baked potatoe every time they hit up a steakhouse?

How can it be that there are women without

rolls,

booty wrinkles,

laugh lines,

crows feet,

undereye bags,

sagging bajungas

or callused feet?

How can it be that there are women who don’t forget to shave their legs and pits?

How can it be that so many someones can look so perfect,

when the only thing I can get perfect is

a consistent look of hot mess (minus the hot)?

Every year,

like clockwork,

around Memorial Day,

I put on a bathing suit and don’t like what I see — despite any work I’ve put in the months prior to look and be healthy.

I take one look at myself in a bathing suit and immediately see every flaw as if a highlighter-happy Kindergarten spotlighted them for me.

But then I take a breath,

a gulp of my cream-heavy iced coffee,

and I remember this:

that no two women are the same.

We are all different and it’s on purpose.

We are all beautiful and that’s not up for discussion.

Annnnnnnnnnd that being a sight in a bikini is NOT our purpose.

Each and every woman you see,

the ones you compare yourself to,

their just doing their thing, living life how they want.

And how they choose to live and look, it isn’t for you to envy.

Because why would you envy something - someone - you know nothing about.

Maybe you’ll never turn down nachos.

Maybe she’ll never take a single bit of ‘em.

Maybe you wear WalMart athletics to the gym.

Maybe she’d never been seen in anything but Lululemon.

But maybe you’re both happy.

Maybe not every time either of you looks in a mirror and decides objectify and to criticize the incredible authentic badass of a woman that you are, but most of the time.

So I’m just here to say this:

Don’t just love yourself whenever you don’t have a bathing suit on.

Love the you that’s confidently wearing hers, or anything for that matter, and don the attitude that is

“this is me - you can take it or leave it or have something to say about it, but regardless, I’m gonna love it — ALL if it, and by it, I mean ME.”