WHERE HAVE ALL THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE GONE?
By Krisha Sandhu
What makes a person beautiful? Their face? Their body? Their clothing? In the age of social media, this question has become more prevalent. There are numerous times when I have asked myself "am I beautiful?". "No, you are not," the girl in the mirror replies every time. And each time I wonder what I need to change to be 'beautiful'. I lose weight, get braces, change my sense of fashion - a rebirth ... of sorts. And again, I visit the girl in the mirror, hoping this time she tells me I've done it; I've become beautiful. "No, you are not," she replies again and again and again. The cycle goes on.
So this month, I pose the question to you, my dear reader: 'what is a beautiful person?'.
My mother is the most beautiful person I know. She's got a mouth full of crooked teeth, an uneven figure, and rough, wrinkled hands. My mother is the most beautiful person I know because she's got a sharp mouth that never backs down from a fight, a figure that has brought life into the world three times, and rough, wrinkled hands that have worked hard and slaved away so that her children would never have to. My mother is the most beautiful person I know, not for what she looks like, but for what she is.
The older I've gotten, the more I've come to realise that being 'beautiful' has nothing to do with looks. It's not about how many followers you have on social media or about how many people you've dated. Beauty is so much more than that, and it makes me upset that those younger than me cannot understand that. There are little girls and boys out there who think that if they lose weight they'll be 'beautiful.' And that's not sustainable, believe me, I've tried it all and it's only made me more critical of myself. Social media has this uncanny ability to remove meaning and sincerity from a lot of things in life. We put our faces all over the internet hoping for someone to validate us, or for someone to like and comment on our photos. We lose so much of ourselves in order to obtain this standard of' 'beauty' we've created that doesn't even actually exist. So how do you achieve something that's not real? It's like trying to score a goal in football, except there's no goalpost. It will never be possible and, once we accept that, only then can we begin.
There's this one quote by Elizabeth Kubler Ross: "The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep, loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen."
When did we stop chasing this concept of beauty in exchange for something less concrete, something less genuine? When did we start believing that if we looked a certain way or dressed in a certain style, more people would like us? I am so sick and tired of society's current perceptions of beauty. Show me someone who's real. Show me someone who would bend over backward for the people they cared about. Show me someone who's hard their heartbroken and is still unshaken. Show me someone who is so irrevocably and unapologetically in love with life. That is a truly beautiful person.
With the advancements in technology, anyone can be physically beautiful (if you've got enough money), but how many people have you come across that have made you feel something? How many people have made you feel loved or cared for? How many people have made you feel like you were enough?
To all you readers whom I have met and have yet to meet, you are the kindest, most magically beautiful people I will ever have the honour of knowing. The kind of beauty that silently slips into the cracks of your heart and roots itself there until it changes your world. And even that is an understatement.
