Your body is a wonderland

The emotional seesaw of loving (and losing) your body.

- Pratishtha Dobhal

On a balmy, teenage-angst-fuelled summer—two years into the new millennium in 2002—two tracks competed for spring break anthem supremacy in my bedroom: John Mayer's Your Body Is a Wonderland and Christina Aguilera's Beautiful. I had just completed a two-week-long mountaineering course, which gave my well-padded arms muscle memory and visibility. My love for my body was at its peak; I was Mayer's girl and Aguilera's BFF. Even though I had always been the ‘healthy’ (moniker for big girl when CDs and cassettes were a thing) national-level gymnast and basketball player, size digs never really got to me. No matter where they came from, my thick skin was guarding my aura.