I’m sure growing up we all heard our parents, teachers, or other person tell us, “Don’t judge a book by its cover!” Let’s face it, though, we all do it. Whether it literally be a book or if it is another human being, it happens all the time. It’s the fault of human nature, and that’s okay.
We need to break this! You never know what the run down, not-so-attractive girl or guy is like, and the book with the absolute ugliest cover can hold the most fascinating of stories.
Approaching me, you are going to see an awkward, slightly tall girl with a few extra pounds and a gap in her teeth. I am by absolutely no means the embodiment of society’s “beautiful” standards. What you aren’t going to see, however, is this:
1. I graduated high school in the top 12 percent of my class.
2. I was in seven different organizations in high school and held leadership positions in any two or three at a time.
3. I’m in a sorority. I know not what you’d think, huh? I, by no means, meet the stereotypical “sorority girl” standards.
I would not trade my sorority sisters for absolutely anything in the world. Despite my outward appearance, they still tell me I’m beautiful and make me feel like I’m on top of the world.
4. I was bullied all through school – elementary to now.
I can’t tell you how many times I came home to my mom until she passed away at the end of my seventh-grade year crying because of being bullied. I can’t tell you how many times in middle school I begged my parents to let me stay home from school, and even tried convincing them to let me transfer schools a time or two. High school was not as bad, but there were several times I was criticized for how I looked, being called fat or ugly, and how many days I was this close to going home and not going back. Graduating high school felt like my freeing moment. I thought that was the turning point – I’d finally be going somewhere where someone, or hopeful a group of sorority sisters, would accept me as I am and love me just as I am. For the most part – it was, and still is! There’s the occasional, “She’s really wearing that? Haha, she’s too fat for that!” but it doesn’t happen often.
5. That the “fat” girl who graduated high school at the peak of 250 pounds has lost 40 pounds in the last nine months.
Whether it be running around like a chicken with its head cut off at work for six to eight hours or going to the gym, I’ve worked my ass off to get the weight loss numbers up. It isn’t about being skinny or feeling like I need to look a certain way to appease everybody else. It’s about me being able to look in the mirror and love what I see, feeling confident in my appearance and self, and also about being healthy. Those 40 pounds have made a dramatic difference in my asthma, I can only hope to eventually combat that and not have it anymore, or at least not as bad as it used to be.
6.The big nerd that I am. I am a huge Harry Potter fan, House Ravenclaw, if you were wondering, and I also have a thing for Criminal Minds, Bones, Big Bang Theory, Grey’s Anatomy, and About a Boy on Netflix.
I can hold endless conversations about them all, Harry Potter in particular.
If you look at me and judge a book by its cover, as it’s so called, then you are going to miss out on a fantastic woman who wants nothing more than to be your friend and make you smile when you’re down. Judging someone by first glimpse is something we all are guilty of doing at some point in our life, but you can choose to bypass that judgement and get to know someone. You never know what amazing individual you might meet.
