Picture Perfect

We got our school pictures back today. I didn't even glance at mine before shoving it in my backpack and racing out of the classroom. It had been a bad morning and I didn't need to feel ugly on top of it all. I know this type of thinking goes against everything I've learned and that I've shared with you. After all, imperfections are beautiful.

I locked myself into the bathroom stall and took a deep breath before studying the pictures. I couldn't keep the tears from falling. I felt so ugly and fat! All of the "you are beautiful" and "imperfections are perfect" went right out of my head as I stared at the girl in the photograph.

At lunch today my friends and I were talking about running. One of my friends said she was going to join cross-country so that she could have a flat stomach and thin arms. A part of me wanted to say, "yeah, that would be amazing to be as skinny as that." But the rational part of me stopped the conversation. We were fat talking, we were calling ourselves ugly. You have to understand, these girls aren't fat by any means. I'd say that as a group we're pretty average; but the media has impressed upon us the desire to be almost anorexic-ly skinny. During this conversation, one of the comments was, "If I were skinny, all of my problems would go away." I can guarantee you that skinny girls have just as many, if not more, problems than "overweight" girls.

We have healthy diets, we all are involved in a physical activity. Tell me, why do we feel the need to loose weight?

As I stare at my photograph now, I see the flaws. But the longer I look at it the more I realize that I look happy. How can someone so "ugly" be happy. That's when I remembered. I had decided that I was going to feel beautiful on picture day. Beauty shows through your emotions and if your distraught about your image you aren't going to be very beautiful at all. However, if you're confident in yourself and your abilities, if you are able to look in the mirror and say "Hello, Beautiful," then you better believe it. Beauty is more than skin deep. And sometimes pictures are better at capturing emotions than the true image.

When I came home from school and peered at my reflection in the mirror, determined not to pick on every little thing that I hate about myself. And I smiled. Taped to the corner of my mirror is a note: "Keep your chin up, beautiful." And you know what? I intend to.

Have a beautiful day and embrace your flaws because they make you unique.