College changed me more than I'd like to admit. I didn't listen to anyone when they told me about the "freshmen 15" [which I gained--only, it took 2 years], how much it can change your opinion of the world or that it teaches you who your real friends are.

Background information: I've been best friend with these two girls [we'll call them Clara and Elissa] since 9th grade; We were inseparable. Literally, when you saw one, you saw the other two. We never had the problems that other girls our age had, with fake-ness and hating; we were real, honest and always there for each other. Come college, in 2008, Clara and I go to the same HBCU in DC and Elissa goes to an Ivy league school in Pennsylvania.

Now, what y'all may think happened did not; it was not Elissa that got kicked out of the Musketeer-esque group, it was me. Even though Clara and I were roommates freshman year, with no issues, come Sophomore year, Elissa and Clara became very close. So, slowly but surely and without my knowledge, I was exiled. Fast forward about to a few days ago, Elissa texts me with nothing short of a "Dear John" letter through text, although she begs to differ. To make a long story somewhat short, we begin to argue and it ended in us pretty much saying, "have a nice life, goodbye." Why was this was so hurtful? 1. Clara and I are not as close anymore, so this was a double whammy 2. She did this over text; she didn't even have the respect to ask me over to have a "talk" 3. She refused to see anything from my point of view 4. She felt like are friendship had been over for a long time and didn't have the decency to say something before, which to me, is very fake.

My "best friends" have broken my heart a million times worst than any guy I ever thought I was in love with. I never knew I had fake people in my life up until recently, which is still shocking to me. My group of friends and I always "prided" ourselves on avoiding the silly drama all the other girls were getting into...but now I know, we were wrong.

Has this ever happened to anyone else? Has college/growing up made you realize who was not your true friend? Share your stories!

After reading a Datingish post about inter-racial dating, it reminded me of one thing: people still hate me.

Me, a black female.

I guess I kinda forgot because I went to an HBCU where it's nothing but black people, especially black females [7:1]. Where everyday is black pride and black history month. Where if some non-black person starts walking around calling saying "niggers," "niggas" or "negroes" they get cut. lol seriously O.O

Anyways, for all those people who dislike "me" because I am...hmmm, what are all stereotypes? How do black women[people] act? Oh yeah, I'll run around screaming, fighting, dressing like a hoe with my big black booty out.
Lol smfro ! LOOK AT ITTTT!

But on a serious note, it doesn't hurt me; I laugh at people like this. I feel sorry for them. I'd hate to be socially handicapped like that.

As I was reading the November issue of Essence, I came across an article entitled, "The Other Big O." An article discussing the problem of obesity (specifically black women, but this applies to all non-Caucasian men and women) and BMI. The main point of this article was that: "BMI was developed to define obesity, primarily based on Caucasian populations because at that time we didn't have good data on racial and ethnic minorities" - John Foreyt, Ph.D.

Most of us know that BMI is faulted anyway, but the fact that ethnicity is isn't taken into account makes it even more faulted for people of color.

Why is this a problem? Because different ethnic groups are genetically bulit different. For example, did you know that "black women have 2 percent less body fat then white women..." ? Because of this, the BMI chart is off for black women. If your BMI is 30 , you are considered obese. But if you are a black woman, you wouldn't be considered "obese" until 32.

See the problem?

So what can the rest of us do to measure our health?
Asset your weight from other perspectives. Use body fat percentages (35% is too high for anyone), and waist circumference (35 inches or larger raises your risk for heart disease and other weight related illnesses) and you'll have a better self-assessment of your weight and health!