Letter from: May 29th, Tuesday, 2018, 8th grade, Health Class - A week before school ends.

Dear the Amazing JJ, My choices should respect my values. I love food, I would know, but, are you going to let those delicious, carb-full, unhealthy, and sugar-filled foods ruin your life? No. Though foods are delicious, some of them are very, very unhealthy and can affect my physicality. If I keep eating unhealthy foods, my relationships could go down. Socializing with people is fun, especially when food is one thing you have in common. But, you can't impress other people or impress yourself with foods. I have the right to decide whether or not I should eat that food. I value confidence and courage when it comes to trying new foods, I love having varieties of different foods. It's easier to meet new people this way, I can become less picky, I can decide whether or not I like the meal and not the foods inside it. Plus, the more foods and options I have, they might tower over the unhealthy options. I don't want to be unhealthy, I want to be fit. Food can affect how well I do in physical activity, and good varieties of foods and healthy foods can help me get better. My choices should respect my values. I don't choose this, but I am bisexual. Yes, that is right, I am attracted to both genders. However, there's nothing wrong with that. Honesty is valued with me and my family, so one day in my starting years of high school, I will confront my parents about this, and be completely honest with them about it. There are two ways this can go. The one I hope and the one I'm afraid of. My parents may support me fully and accept the truth, or tense our relationship, disgrace me or things like that. But, whatever the case is, I'll still love them and I won't be afraid to tell them that I'm okay with this. If anybody in my school tells me that I shouldn't be bisexual or make fun of me about it, I will not let them tell me that it is bad because I will tower above them and tell them to back away. It's my sexuality, not yours. With my practice and acceptance of my sexuality, I can build mental strength. I will stay positive, focused, and true to people, but mostly true to myself. My choices should respect my values. I'm not too comfortable with my body. But you know what? I don't value negativity or poor body image. I value acceptance. I value hard work. So, if I want to be skinnier or something like that, then I will work out instead of cutting down my foods or eating less (which would be hard, since I LOVE food and I talked about having varieties.) However, I don't WANT to change my body. I can make that decision, I have the right to. If I feel fine with the body I have, I don't need to rely on poor or good decisions. Of course, I'll eat healthier, but not for the reason of body image. My thoughts about body image shouldn't tear me away from my friends, or make me think negatively about myself. Body image, if it encourages me to go work out more often, then I'll take it. I decided to respect my body and not let social media influence me. Disliking parts of your body is called an image gap. The more you dislike about yourself, the larger the image gap. The more you compare yourself to women's ideal bodies on social media, the wider the image gap. The larger the image gap, the closer you are to being mental negative. You sure you want to bad thoughts about yourself all the time? All that worry locked up inside you? Probably not. Though it may take a while, accept the fact you look like this, beautiful, as someone once said. Learn to be okay with your body. You'll be more comfortable around more people and feel a whole lot better. Trust me. My choices should respect my values. I will not abuse substances of any kind. I don't want to build a tolerance for it. I don't want to experience a binge with any kind of it. I will not let people influence me to take any kind of drug I am not willing to take. "No" always wins. Off the bat, I'm going to say: I value the right decisions. From all that I've heard about drugs, they have many negative effects, on relationships, physical activity, decision making, and how I feel about others and myself. Abusing a drug can make me lose friends, as in they think it's really bad or I might influence them or even hurt them! I don't blame them, I would do the same. Friendship is one thing that matters to me a lot, I can't lose it because I was abusing drugs. I value hard work, and if abusing a drug keeps me away from that, I don't want to take it at all, fewer chances of risking abuse. Working hard to achieve my goals, including manga art, writing books, finishing school assignments and school in general. Plus, I know that drugs can affect your mentality and state of mind. If that were to happen, I'm not sure I will be able to get a good job, and I might have to go to the hospital or do things I don't want to help me get better. My choices should respect my values. As I said before, friendship is very important to me, as well as my family. I have no experience with anyone romantically, but that doesn't have to change how happy I can be and what things I can accomplish. Good friends, ones who are safe, honest, accepting of who I am, respecting, and are enjoyable are people that will make me happy and potentially have good influences on me, like going to do physical things outside of school activities, one who push me in the right direction, someone who will make me feel better about myself, etc. Those are people I respect, the ones who have the SHARE (safety, honesty, acceptance, respectful, enjoyment) qualities. My family is all of those. No matter those, I am still afraid to confront them about my sexuality, but I cannot keep it a secret. They are family, and I trust them with my life, literally. Am I prepared for an intimate relationship? Before I can say yes to that, I need to make sure I will be happy with this person, and I trust them. Are they safe and stay away from drugs? Do they like me for who I am and won't judge me? Will they be honest with me? Will they not only respect me but also my values? If the answer to all of these questions is yes, be with that person or stay with them. If one is a no, confront them about it and don't be shy. If more are answered with no, then it's probably not a healthy relationship which can make me feel uneasy about myself. If he doesn't like my appearance, I might not be either and make wrong decisions about food or even exercise. Not that both these choices can be good things if I do them right, but if I let his words get to my head, who knows what could happen. Lead to drugs to make me feel better, lead to diets that I may not like or want, stop hanging out with some of my friends because they might think something different, etc. Relationships are a big thing I value, and negative things can greatly affect it. However, I will not let anything take it away.