Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder

One night in my room, as Chris was leaving, he stood back and gave his reflection the thumbs up in the mirror beside my door. As I laughed, he told me half-seriously that one should be positive about the way they look. No worries for him, he's a good looking bloke. Then again, he is right.

The constant exposure to beautiful people in the media nowadays creates a warped perception of beauty, an idealised image of what beautiful is. Ignore the fact that only 1% of the world's population actually look like those celebrities splashed across magazine covers and advertisments. Ignore the fact that most of those featured have oodles of cash, personal trainers, fashion consultants and a whole managerie of people to help them look good. Society dictates that they are beautiful and therefore they are.

I took a step back and looked at myself in the mirror today. I really looked at myself, instead of merely casting a glance to check on my clothes or my hair. Funnily enough, I couldn't picture anyone else standing in front of the mirror. I thought about all those people wishing they looked like Catherine Zeta Jones or Britney Spears or Claudia Schiffer... and I thought, "That's not me."

I cannot imagine even changing my weird nose or the strange angles of my face. I may not be classically beautiful, but there are so many advantages of being not gorgeous. I know my friends are with me because they truly like me for who I am (especially since so many of my friends are really and truly beautiful people). I'm not under the same pressure that beautiful people are. I'm relieved that I'm not the centre of attention of any place I go to. I'm less subjected to certain stereotypes. It's good being not beautiful.

Then again, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Although most of my friends are truly physically good-looking, they're beautiful to me because of who they are, and the more I learn about a person as I become closer to them, the more beautiful they become to me.

What can I say? I'm surrounded by beautiful people.