The love written in our faces
The girl looking in the mirror sees a fat nose, thin lips, a double chin and pimples. She wishes to recognize the girl staring back at her but she doesn’t. Her insecurities consume her, as she longs to look like the other girls in school, jealous of their “perfect” features. But what makes a feature perfect?
The girl looking in the mirror sees a thin, restructured nose, plump lips, a sharp jawline, and clear skin. But she doesn’t recognize the girl looking back in the mirror either. She sees someone who’s trying so hard to mold herself into something she’s not. If only she knew that her real beauty lies within her authenticity, not the mask she puts on. The girls at school always stare at her, she just thinks they’re judging a feature on her face. But in reality, they’re only admiring her, wishing they looked like that. But the girl catching their stares will never know that.
Everyone has their own insecurities, and no insecurity is more relevant than the other. We have continuously lived in a society where comparing ourselves to others is what’s “normal”. We are almost considered conceited if we don’t find anything in our face we want to change.
We long for everything we do not have, and hate the features we do have. As we look at the people around us, we think: “Oh I want her nose” or “I wish I had her eyes”. It is one thing to appreciate the beauty of others, but it is another thing to compare yourself to the beauty of others. We should not result in wishing to change our own features, instead, we can look to others and appreciate their uniqueness and look back at ourselves and appreciate our own uniqueness. Remember, living in a world full of clones would be boring.
And trust me, I know moving past insecurities is easier said than done and I am not trying to criticize anyone for feeling insecure, because we all do at times. Probably everyone in the world has felt insecure at one point in their lives. But what if we all just flipped our perspectives.
The other day I came across this quote, “Remember your face is a combination of thousands of years worth of people who loved each other’s faces, so it doesn’t make any sense to call yourself ugly,”. Sadly, I do not know who wrote this quote, but nonetheless, it is beautiful. Our faces arise from the love of our ancestors, so why should we hate on our features so much? Next time you’re looking in the mirror, judging and wishing to look different, just think back to how the reason your face is arranged the way it is is because your great grandmother loved your great grandfather, because your grandpa loved your grandma, and because your parents loved each other.
You may have the shape of your dad’s nose, eyes the color of your grandma’s, and hair the color of your mom’s. So again I ask, why should we hate our features so much? Always remember the stories your face tells, and how you carry a little piece of your loved ones within yourself, forever.
