I’m graduating at 29 after 6 years! When you are just out of high school, it feels so important to be in line with your peer group. As you get farther from that point, no one carries the same timeline anymore. It’s okay to take more time, and more importantly, it’s okay to fail a class.
Some of my classmates finished their masters before I even started!
I allow them to feel fat while still demanding they provide evidence if they actually insist they are overweight.
I feel fat even when I’m in a healthy weight range; I think that is patriarchal social programming. I don’t think you can control how someone else feels. But when they start really getting down on themselves, I encourage them to either find evidence that they are overweight and then set goals to deal with it. Or, they can’t actually prove it (ie. They are healthy weight/waist) and then we deal with overcoming the social programming.
Not perfect, but it works for me and my partner. Mostly deals with accepting how we feel and making a plan about it.