dear Diary #5

"CHARM IS DECEPTIVE, AND BEAUTY IS FLEETING"

Dear diary,

"Seated on the carved stool outside the entrance to her home was a young girl humming the song "I have confidence in confidence alone, besides which you see I have confidence in me...", one of the many songs found on the "Sound of Music" musical drama, which was popular in the 90's. 

You see this girl is no different than many of us today. She was fighting an inner battle, a battle of the mind. A battle which was otherwise invisible to the naked eye nless consciously expressed by the sufferer. With tears rolling down her face, she hums the song which seemed to lift her spirit and give her a boost for the task ahead. She had been told she was worth nothing, not as pretty as them, not as popular as them, and could never catch up to them..."

In society today, we see outrageous beauty standards, trends, and pressure from the "world of the elite" to be a certain type of way, to look a certain type of way, behave a certain type of way. "If you want to be cool like us, you have to do this and that..."

No, it did not begin in our time, but just like an untreated ulcer, it's stench and decay has found it's way effortlessly into our world today. It's unnerving to think about how young people, in secondary schools, high schools, and even primary schools are experiencing such psychological stress.

I remember in my high school days, all the cool girls had boyfriends and would stay after school to be with them in the classrooms. Only God knows what went down during those moments. As I moved higher up the educational ladder, the trends changed with time, from bringing mobile phones to school (it was illegal at the time), to jumping over the wall to attend parties outside school (boarding school). LOL! It's hilarious thinking about all the things people did just to be called cool, or avoid being called "djon".

In this age, things are worse off. Now, we see that these trends have taken a new turn on social media and the internet as a whole. You've seen it, you know what I mean. Such unrealistic standards tends to push people with an already damaged self-esteem over the edge, into the abyss of self-destruction and self-hate.

If you're experiencing anything like that, stop. Take a deep breath. Bring down your shoulders. Loosen your brow. Those things you see on the internet are nowhere near perfection. No matter how realistic they make it look, it's just an illusion. Moreover, there's nothing like a perfect person, or a perfect life.

Live life at your own pace. Everybody is running their own race. Someone's might end very soon, someone's just started. Never compare anything you have or do not have to anybody's. Relax.

You don't need to undergo surgery or perform any permanent tweaks to your body just to look like someone else. You don't need to "sell your soul to the devil", or engage in illegal acts just to attain a certain level of class in society, or destroy others on your way to amassing wealth for yourself.

You need to be unapologetically, uniquely, YOU, with all your nicks and corners, with all your knots and physical flaws; taking in life as it comes, one step at a time. That's what makes you human. Those things you see as flaws, is what makes you YOU, and there's only one of you. So be confident in your own skin, comfortable in your own body, and content with your own race.

Exercise, take care of your body, take care of your health. Work hard, press towards your goals, and achieve them. Trust me, all these beauty standards and trends will change with the years. So are you going to change with them? Maybe in the years to come, having no pinky finger will the latest trend...will you cut yours off?

"Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it"

- Confucius

note: Check out my post, "Painfully Flawed " under the category "A PINCH OF POETRY" for some self-esteem repair! Lots of love!