Profile Writing Challenge: An Accomplishment You're Proud Of

Write about an accomplishment you're proud of and why it makes you proud. The accomplishment can be something personal or professional that you've found particularly fulfilling. Write about it in 250 words or less.

A personal accomplishment that I've found incredibly fulfilling is healing my obesity and body dysmorphia. Ever since I gained consciousness as a child, I remember being overweight and looking different from most people. I often perceived that people mistreated me because of how I looked, which caused me to develop an unhealthy relationship with my body, the food I would put in it, and my attitude towards exercise.

At the age of 19 and when I immigrated to Canada, I found an environment that would support me on a strenuous journey to address my obesity and the self-worth damage caused by growing up with it. During this time, I suffered numerous injuries as I tried to maintain my academic and career progress while coping with a heavy exercise routine and insufficient sleep.

In the five years before I finally stabilized my weight, I experienced both extremes of an unhealthy body, dropping about 25 pounds below my healthy weight. On the quest for balance, I had to construct, tear down, and reconstruct my understanding of a healthy lifestyle and self-image multiple times.

While achieving better fitness brought many health and lifestyle benefits, I'm also grateful for the change in mindset that resulted from my journey. My new eyes gave me a renewed and empowering perspective on life because I was able to conquer a state of body and mind that had haunted me ever since I became self-conscious.

I started to believe I could conquer greater mountains...maybe any mountain.