By Shannon McKenna
Round Table editor
“Let the world know you as you are, not as you think you should be, because sooner or later, if you are posing, you will forget the pose, and then where are you?,” said actress Fanny Brice.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, between the high standards of commercial beauty and the pressure to conform to society’s beauty expectations many people, including Middletown High School students, seem to find flaws in themselves due to a lowered self confidence, when truly they don’t know how lucky they are for what they have.
“My eyes are the wrong color”,”my nose is too upturned”, “my ears are too big”, “my teeth are crooked”; each of those little details that we criticize are the features that make us original.
“I’ve never really liked the way my hair looks, its just kind of flat and has no volume or texture to it. Sometimes I wish I could dye my hair or change it but I just can’t seem to be able to bring myself to do it,” said MHS junior Jessie Bunk.
Beauty is an opinion of oneself; it all lies in perception. The way we see ourselves is based on the judgment from others and ourselves. Even if you think you have a flaw that needs to be fixed, just work it rather then letting it take the reins about how you look at yourself.
“If I could change something about myself I’d get rid of my baby cheeks, because they make me look younger then I really am and I get self conscience about it especially when someone points it out,” said MHS junior Ginny Dinh.
It shouldn’t matter what you look like on the outside, what matters is what’s on the inside. Beauty should be measured by how we treat others, not by their level of attractiveness. Originality has a sense of freshness about it, while sameness is just as it sounds: the same, no difference from anyone else.
“Sometimes I wish I could grow a couple of inches taller, maybe one or two inches. I’m a lot shorter then many of the other girls in my grade. I don’t always like feeling different,” said MHS sophomore Abby Williamson.
Physical beauty can be deceptive, real beauty comes from the shining personality that lies under the surface. Just because someone is”beautiful” on the outside doesn’t mean they are on the inside; the way they act and treat others determines that.
Over the years women, and men, have found ways to mask some of their more original features. Spray tans, hair dyes, makeup, different eye color contacts, all of these products alter the things that make us ourselves. Perfection sells, and there are plenty of people buying into the scam.
Many MHS students follow the trends of outer beauty, because in high school image “really “matters. Focus on what you like to do rather then letting your physical traits determine the kind of person you are because for every one bad thing you think about yourself you can find two good things to think about.
“People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in; their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within,” said psychiatrist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross.
