Meeting the standards

Late 2015, 9th grade, in my previous school, we were having a break from our practice for a ballroom dance that we had to do for our P.E. class. I asked one of my guy friends if I could borrow the chair that he was sitting on, and he said yes. He said that he was going to leave anyway so it was all good.

Minutes after, I stood up. One of my friends called me and said there was something she needed to tell me, so I went. After we finished talking, I walked towards the chair to sit down again. I saw my guy friend whom I borrowed the chair from. He was already back from the canteen and making his way towards us along with his other friends. I thought that everything was good between us, but I thought wrong. As I was about to sit down on the chair, my butt met the floor. Someone pulled the chair from behind.

Can you guess who? Yes, that’s right. It was the guy whom I borrowed the chair from. When I looked back at him, he was kind of laughing at me. It looked like he was proud of and wasn’t sorry for what he did. I, of course, was confused. I got annoyed, too, but I just brushed it off. I stood somewhere else to cool off, somewhere far from him.

Here’s the fun part: It only gets more exciting from here. A few minutes after I walked away, I saw one of my female friends, who by the way is very pretty. She meets the world standard of beauty, I must say. She walked to the guy friend of mine who had earlier pulled the chair prank. I couldn’t hear what she told him, but not even a minute later, he stood up and gave the chair to her. What??!

That’s it? Is it because she’s pretty that he gave the chair to her willingly without any second thoughts? What’s the difference between her and me? I asked properly, too, didn’t I? Why did he have to pull the chair, and laugh straight at me when I fell down the floor? Why? Why is it that, just because she’s prettier than me, she gets better treatment than I do? Is that what the world has really come to? When someone doesn’t meet the standard or meaning of beauty, she is treated less than she deserves?

Of course, I didn’t tell anyone about this. I didn’t want to seem petty over a chair. I’m afraid some people would think that I’m too shallow, but I know I’m not. Now, I’m simply speaking up in behalf of all the people, myself included, who have ever felt that they’re not beautiful enough for the world to see because unfortunately, this society that we live in has a different way of realizing what true beauty is.

It’s more than what we see on the outside.

It’s sad that people have to make adjustments, undergo different surgeries, put on makeup, do this, do that, etc., just to feel beautiful.

Why do we do it? We want to meet the standard of this world’s meaning of beauty, that’s it. It’s the ugly truth and reality.

As cliché as it sounds, everybody’s beautiful. We all are, no matter what we look like. True beauty is found within.

It’s not just how a person looks on the outside, how pointed her nose is, how slim her waist is, whether or not she has a thigh gap, how flat her tummy is, how tall she is, how white her skin is, how thick her eyebrows are, how clear her skin is from acne and stretch marks, it’s about who we really are on the inside; how you treat other people and yourself, how you love yourself, how you want the world to be a better place, how you don’t care about what other people might think of you as long as you’re doing what you want to do. It’s that.

If you are reading this, please know that you are beautiful no matter what you look like.

You are beautiful because you are you.

You are beautiful simply because you are, it doesn’t require any explanation.

You are beautiful in every single way, screw people who say that you’re not.

I wish to see a change in this world, in this society. I wish that people would treat other people with fair kindness and equality, no matter what they look like, no matter what their race is, no matter what their gender is, and no matter where they are from. I wish people would stop judging others from what they look like on the outside and start to love them as they are as a person.

And a girl can only wish for so much.