Rolling waves. Beating sun. A complete lack of academic obligation. Can you think of a better way to spend a Monday and Tuesday in May?

A year ago, I certainly could. To stressed-out junior me, the senior trip to Laguna Beach posed a conundrum: relax in Edenic bliss while freaking out about my perceived bodily imperfections — the stretch marks, the hip bones, the skinny ankles. It was last year that I realized how much I’d sucked up the social and media connotations of these parts of my body – that they’re less than perfect.

Since that point, I started talking to my friends about my body and realized that Harker is one of the most accepting places I’ve ever been in. So many of my friends have healthy attitudes towards their bodies and believe that physical health leads to emotional well-being. Whenever I’ve expressed even the slightest insecurity about my physical appearance, I’ve had hordes tell me I have nothing to worry about.

In this issue, we’ve included an article about body image on campus and its intersection with health and fitness. The first thing that struck me about the piece was the preponderance of kids with a desire to be healthy, not just skinny. So many conversations in the media have revolved around the lack of health in teenage life that, to me, Harker seems like a bright light in that landscape.

Harker does so much right regarding our health — encourages us to pursue athletics and offers Healthy Choice and other health-conscious options during lunch, so anyone who intends to be healthy can do so with ease. But I was surprised that we’ve heard nothing from the administration about the perception of so many seniors attempting to get that beach-ready body.

The way in which a body-positive message is communicated is important too. The administration can’t bring up issues of body image while dismissing the fact that there is a pressure to be skinny. That would invalidate the struggles of those at the Upper School going through serious eating or health tribulations.

It’s imperative that we have more of the vocal positivity that I was lucky to get last year. I would be in a worse place mentally if not for my social net of friends and family who reminded me that whatever my body looked like after I ate healthy food and drank enough water and exercised a bit was good enough.

That advice is healing, and having it come from friends and peers – from students who understand that “the social image comes as a side benefit,” as Abhay Varmaraja (10) said in the article – is even more so.

This piece was originally published in the pages of The Winged Post on April 22, 2015.