Tayana Osuna, arts & culture editor

THERE I WAS — minding my own business, doing some homework, checking what was in my Valorant shop — when all of a sudden my mother tells me about how some woman was coming over to meet with her and to stay downstairs when she does. Alright no biggie, HOWEVER, my mother continues saying that she has to meet with this woman in regards to her life insurance. That‘s when she told me, “Yeah, really she’s just gonna come over and tell me I’m fat” — hold the phone — what now? “Yeah, they have to weigh me because the more I weigh the higher my rate is.” As in, if they consider her to be overweight she has to pay them MORE money because the more you weigh the more “at risk” she is to develop health conditions, so they claim. 

Now, there’s more to it than just that. They take your height and medical history into consideration, along with a million other things that all genuinely make sense to consider, but I can’t help but notice that this just made my mother, and many other individuals, feel like their weight is what determines their health. Spoiler, IT DOESN’T.

Growing up, I played soccer and a lot of it. I played year-round for about 13 years, and I loved it. However, I was always the biggest girl on the team and that for some reason pinned me as the unhealthy one. Yeah, I’m a beefy chick, men fear me, it’s great, but I would still be the one pressured to work out more and eat better. Now, none of my teammates and coaches ever said that to me directly — really it was parents who would say it, and especially my own mother — but I still noticed the divide between myself and the other girls on my team. 

I was held to a different standard than they were. If they got tired, or if they needed a break it’s because they were “working hard” on the field. But if I needed a break?! Pfft, I didn’t get an applause or a slap on the back! It was just assumed I was tired because I was “out of shape.” When you play soccer year-round for as long as I did, you’re not out of shape. This led me to be overworked and undermined by some of my coaches. In fact, I remember actually believing I was out of shape due to my weight and how I was being perceived, that I pressured myself to run FOUR MILES EVERYDAY after school. I did this before any homework, before eating, before doing anything personal, all because I was deemed “unhealthy,” aka fat.

Not everyone saw me this way though, and I did have some teammates and coaches that weren’t insensitive or judgmental (which is the bare minimum) and saw the effort I was putting in and the passion I had for that sport, indirectly acknowledging that my weight had nothing to do with my health, for me that is. 

There are times when one’s weight can definitely have an effect on your health, and this doesn’t just go for us heavier folk, it goes for everyone, “big” or “small.”