What Beauty Means to Me by Hajra Salim

What Beauty Means to Me
by Hajra Salim

To define beauty is not something I am neither capable nor worthy of doing. My philosophy is that like every other emotion, every pleasure that fills our soul changes and keeps on taking different forms. For instance, happiness; you no longer find happiness spending money on dolls and riding a Ferris wheel in hopes of touching the sky. You CHANGED! Your priorities, your desires, and the level of fulfillment has metamorphosed into something new. Take any emotion, like anger, you don’t start disheveling your sisters hair if she snatches the TV remote from your hand (I mean, if you still do that… cool! Just make sure mom doesn’t know). You know, beauty is the name of an ever-changing process for me. It changes as I enter different stages in my life and that is fine, actually that is what’s so beautiful. It changes every day!

10-year-old me found unfathomable beauty in building a sandcastle or making horrible snow angels in winters.15-year-old me is in quite a queer position of what exactly is beauty in this era. Without a second thought, for me, beauty is in individualism. Individualism, but then I look around myself and find more cases of people oppressed, people who are breathing but whose voices and bodies are made to feel insecure because their existence differs the norm, it stands out! No, you don’t always need to fit in. It’s weird, how you want to blend in with everybody and everything, yet the constant reminder of not being extraordinary keeps your mind awake when your eyelids are heavy from all the exhaustion of not looking Instagram-worthy. Please, don’t. Don’t do this to yourself. Be yourself, be independent! Your acne scars, trust me, are attractive. Your frizzy hair, let it breathe; stop ruining it under the artificial heat of that straightener. I know, I don’t know you but you are beautiful and I love you for everything that you are. You go girl!

Beauty isn’t always to be spoken about, it’s in awkward silences when eyes speak, when music accompanies, it’s when you appreciate your existence when no one does.

Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.

How true! Never hold yourself back when you want to compliment someone. You like her outfit? Say it! You’ve never met her? It might sound creepy? What if she doesn’t like you? The next time you take out the trash, throw out these thoughts as well. You never know how much effort someone put in their outfit, hair, makeup right? Appreciate it, it’ll all come back to you. I promise you, beautiful!

Media has brought us closer to each other and it is mind-blowing to see that in some many ways. Unfortunately, the obsession with skinny figure, a desirably balanced complexion or in some parts of the world ‘the lighter the complexion, the better,’ magazine covers reaching the heights of perfection. Don’t let this world of filters and air-brushes make you feel miserable about your unique self. You must not base beauty upon perfection or what the media usually portrays. Be yourself and smile, it is beautiful. I mean, look at me, I have such crooked teeth but oh, dare not, anyone tell me to stop smiling. Hehe.

I would conclude by saying that beauty is undefinable and it can be found in the littlest of moments and things. We all are beautiful and if we all follow one exact path to looking or feeling beautiful we would be oh god, so boring. So, go ahead and be yourself. Also, don’t forget to leave a little sparkle wherever you go!

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