The Thing About Beauty

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." 


...Bullshit.

It certainly is not. Beauty comes from within. Some aspects of beauty are not seen with an eye at all. Beauty is courage. It's the courage to be bold, to be different, to be insightful, to be poised, to be charming, to be creative, to be graceful, to be empathetic, to be clever. It's something not everyone can pull off. I do think everyone has beauty in them. Whether in their looks or in their heart, but the trouble is that most are afraid to tap into it and spill it out for everyone to see.

Beauty is something that isn't black and white, even though the media would have you believe so. It's grey and up for interpretation, but the truly, it's how you interpret yourself. I've seen girls with burlap sacks for clothing shine above other people by their actions and good spirit. Heck, women who cover themselves from head to toe in black wraps showing only their eyes can be gorgeous by the things they say and the smiles in their only their eyes. It's not about the perfect beach body or looking great in anything you try on, although that can be part of it. Beauty becomes a part of your personality at one point after you utilize it on a daily basis.

In elementary school, I was bullied verbally every day. I was called a "big blue blob" and other nasty things. Children are mean when they have little to no self esteem at a young age. In return, I always believed I was the ugly duckling. I remember going to the library and checking out "The Ugly Duckling" from the library on my own. When I got to the last page, I just sobbed. It was me but I hadn't grown into the swan yet. Girls stepped on my self esteem and choked it until it died. It wasn't until I reached public schools in 7th grade that I started to realize I was prettier than I thought. My friends thought my big earrings and make up was pretty and complimented me. It surged my broken self esteem with a new power and brought it back to life. Suddenly, I was popular in the sense that people really didn't seem to mind me.

When I started dating Kyle, I was told every day that I was beautiful. Of course I didn't believe him at first and thought maybe he's partially blind or something. My new college friends started to tell me I'm beautiful. My family tells me I'm beautiful. But the best thing in the world is that strangers at my work tell me I'm beautiful. I asked myself why. I'm the same person, but why is everyone just now starting to tell me? You know why? It's because you have to rock it. You own it, baby. No matter what you wear, no matter what you're feeling, you rise above and you have to believe you are beautiful. It's amazing how others will start agreeing.

It's a mind set, it really is. Confidence gives off vibes to other people (I know there are chemicals that are released, too, that people are attracted to when you are confident) and they accept you and believe you. Beauty is doing everything you do from the heart and not letting petty things get in the way of that.

So, readers, be bold, be confident, be courageous. It's your turn to smack some beauty on the table in front of you and own it!