Peer Wellness Personal Statement

When I first read the E-mail from my academic advisor about the Peer Wellness Educator position, I don’t think I understood what kind of opportunity was before me. I believe that the new Peer Wellness Educator program is a job that is a great fit for what I am looking to get involved with throughout my career.

Not only does it interest me in the fact that it is very relevant to my interests, but it sounds like a lot of fun. Sure, it may be a lot of work, but being able to educate my peers on subjects that interest me sounds like a fantastic way to take a break from school work.

Even in high school I always enjoyed giving presentations and public speaking. In speech class, I was the one who would always raise my hand, so that I could give

Being overweight is not optimal, no matter what age. Even in elementary and middle school it can have a huge impact on someone’s life. Being overweight, I decided it was necessary to take control of my diet, and start working out. Along with this I became too focused on a number on the scale. During my junior year of cross country, I put 600 miles of training under my belt in the summer, and went from a weight of 145 pounds to a measly 128 pounds. With the mindset of, the lighter I was the faster that I would be, I soon learned that I was not actually helping myself. During cross country, I was always cold in class, and learned that I simply was not getting enough food in my body. After visiting a doctor and having a blood test I learned I was anemic. I was not getting enough iron in my diet, and it was hurting my performance and destroying the great potential of all the training I had put into cross country that summer. After cross country, I decided I was “bulking” and figured I would eat anything I wanted. By New Year’s Eve I was weighing around 160 pounds, and felt terrible. Putting on over 30 pounds in a few short months did not set me up for success. After wanting to get healthy again I began to cut my calories to a very small amount, much under my maintenance calories. This shortly led to late nights waiting for everyone to go to bed so I could spend long periods of time in the kitchen eating foods that made me feel good at the time, but made me feel terrible the next morning. I had developed Binge Eating Disorder and lost my healthy relationship with food that I once had. It was a long process, but eventually I found inspiration on YouTube and other social media that led me back to healthy eating habits. I began to track my calories again in the MyFitnessPal app almost every day, and began to gain confidence back in myself. I used resources to