“Cross the line if you believe that life is easier for attractive people.” I was in 8th grade. Worried about what my peers thought more than what I thought. Looking back, I wonder how many others worried more about others opinions than their own. I was frantically looking around at my peers, wondering what they would do, take a step forward or back. The team leaders watched us look at each other. “Close your eyes,” they started before they repeated their previous statement. I closed my eyes and took a step forward. Of course life was easier for people when they were attractive.
There’s a reason that women spend thousands of dollars on makeup. There’s a reason plastic surgery is so popular. There’s a reason there are so many magazines focused on attractive people. There’s a reason people pay to be made attractive, or to stay attractive. Maybe it’s more our inner securities that we are trying to feed an inner need to feel beautiful.
Is life easier for pretty people? I don’t think being pretty is going to change what might happen to someone in their life. Pretty people will still go through hardships and being pretty will not make it easier on their mental health or easier to get through it. However just because hardships are not easier for an attractive person doesn’t mean life in general isn’t a bit more easy.
I remember spending time with a boy I’d been seeing and all I could think was, “Do you think I’m pretty?” He of course laughed, “Of course I do, Fiona. Do you think we would be here if I didn’t?” and I laughed too hoping he wouldn’t see into how serious my question was as well as how I was hoping he was serious. He knew how to make me feel pretty usually when I didn’t.
Am I a pretty girl? My best friend from school, Hannah, certainly is. She is a beautiful girl. But she is also so much more than that. She is a Spanish major who loves hiking, working out, traveling and just... overall, I can’t decide what to tell you. She is absolutely beautiful, I once described her as the prettiest person I know, and she is, but she is so much more than pretty. It’s hard that pretty is still one of the first things I use to describe her, but it’s the most appealing thing. People love to hear about the traveling and adventures and about our face masks, cupcakes and rocking out in the car but the most appealing way to describe someone is attractive.
Honestly, thinking about my friends, most of them are beautiful. Even the boys are attractive. Is this because I am drawn to pretty people? Because I am shallow and want to be around pretty people? Because it’s just the groups I’m in are full of attractive people. Aubrey? Absolutely gorgeous. Each of my friends have different things that are beautiful about them. Mostly their personalities because their happiness shines out of their faces and into my life. Physically they are absolutely beautiful, but their happiness shines out of their faces and into the lives of people like me. They find me a way to shine and have introduced me to new things that I have shown to my Appletoninas. These things from my Green Bay family that I have found have allowed me to be able to extend my hometown family.
"Cross the line if you think life is easier for attractive people." I will still take a step forward. But I will also look for more meaningful relationships and for the light that shines out of people to make for a beautiful person inside that shines out. People who shine because of what they love are more beautiful than people who shine only because of how they appear. My friends are more beautiful to me now than they were when I met them because I know that there is so much more to them than the makeup they put on and the time they spent on their hair.
"Cross the line if you think life is easier for attractive people." I'll cross each time. "Cross the line if you think attractive people are happier," I might think twice. "Cross the line if people are attractive because of their experiences and beings." Cross the line.
