Accepting Myself! - Sanchita Rath

“My story started during my High School, when I gained a lot of weight, and people started body shaming me. I lost all my confidence to speak publicly, because I took to my heart everything that was being spoken about me. I even started losing friends because of this. Although I was good at studies and did well in my 10^th, I scored comparatively low in my 12^th because I had lost my motivation.

After all this, I started reading books, talked to myself and encouraged myself to let all the toxicity out of my life. I slowly gained back my courage, and became really comfortable with my own body, irrespective of what others said about me. I learnt riding a bike, riding a tractor, travelled Odisha on my bike all by myself, tried my hands on art and craft, and played cricket and softball in my college tournaments.

Most importantly, I developed my public speaking skills, hosted college events, and currently, I am a Student RJ in SOA Radio. I also joined the theatrics club, performed Nukkad in villages, and did stand-up comedies too. Since I am an agriculture student, I share gardening ideas and hacks on YouTube as well. All these helped me regain all the confidence that I had lost, and made me gain a completely new perspective in life!

Last year I applied for ‘Miss Plus Size India’, and this year I am a finalist in the 2021 edition of it. I have tried my hands on a lot of different activities that I enjoyed to do, and they made me happy! I want to try out a lot of new things that people say I am not fit enough to do.

My parents, and especially my Mom, support me completely. My Mom was the biker of her time, and I’m glad I inherited her genes. I feel like this is the first step towards change, and there’s a lot more to achieve in life. We cannot stop people from assuming things about us, the best we can do is make ourselves happy and let our works speak for themselves.” – Sanchita Rath