Screw Beautiful

So girls (and guys too), listen up!

Think for a moment about what compliment you hear more than any other. You probably won't have to think too hard.

Yep, definitely "you're so beautiful", or variations of that.

And I know, the complimenters always mean well... I call people beautiful all the time.

But just think for a moment about how beautiful quietly destroys us.

We always want to hear beautiful, and by giving and receiving beautiful, we buy into it. We buy into the idea that beauty defines us, that beauty comes before all else, and that somehow, the nose, eyes, and ears coded into your DNA make you better or worse than someone else.

We accept pressure to maintain a specific body image, to wear makeup for others, to look everywhere for physical approval, and to be wanted.

Ladies, we don't need to be wanted. I promise. You were born with your face and body. Love it, be comfortable in it, but stop looking for beautiful. It really doesn't matter at all.

Strive for intelligent, courageous, compassionate, bold.

Tell me I'm insightful, trustworthy, spirited, and unique.

I don't need beautiful. I don't need a check mark next to something I can't control. Appreciate me for the qualities I have control over, the ones I can foster and nourish, the ones that will make you, me, and the world better.

Screw beautiful. 

We encompass a whole lot more than that.

Defining Yourself

Hello everyone! It sure has been a while...
Wow, I've conquered junior year (in a manner of speaking :P), and am on my way to many endings and even more beginnings.
In the process of attempting to begin my common app essay early, I've stumbled on the idea of defining myself as an individual in a few words. I really want, like everyone else, to capture myself in those 650 words, to weave myself into the page so anyone reading will emerge with a true understanding of me.

But somehow, I feel that can't be possible. Maybe it's because my writing capabilities only stretch so far, or because I have not yet cemented my identity, but I hope it's that a person contains too many folds and facets to capture in a few words.
The entire premise of a common app essay must be flawed because people cannot be reduced to a few scribbles on a page. Even the best character you've read or written, the most emotion you've poured out onto the page, will not capture the entirety of you because there is, and always will be more.

There's always that quiet sensitivity behind the confident exterior, the silent tears you shed while watching a movie, that impossible understanding you have with the squirrel that lives in your front yard-you're bold but cautious- how is that possible? Only you can feel it- you're compassionate but convicted, you like folk music for how it makes you think but rock for how it makes you feel, there's just so much packed inside of you like people on a Mumbai bus, love and fear and opinions and thought, always thinking always evolving, dynamic and charismatic and filled with infinite potential, beautiful beyond measure.

We have more packed inside of each single one of us than the universe has inside it- our imaginations remain forever unbounded by the constraints of the world. I am limitless.

Now how can I put all of that in 650 words? :)

Joy

How do you define happiness?

We all hear repeatedly of society's materialism, excessive consumerism, and need to fulfill material desires in order to find emotional peace. Obviously, we have long established that happiness does not stem from material possessions alone.
Then perhaps it comes with belonging, acceptance, and love. Or maybe with self confidence, power and success.

But then, maybe not.

Happiness is the pure wonder of existence. The inexplicable tears that erupt when a beautiful song plays and the look of awe as we see the stars spread before us for the first time are happiness. The moment we realize the profound beauty in every breath we take and the striking complexity of the universe whirling around us to make life possible, we realize happiness.

The ability to look at the same thing twice and see something different, to laugh again and again at the same old joke... these little marvels constitute the magic of the human experience. The blissful interlocking of human consciousness, of compassion, pride, and strength defines our existence and allows it to continue.

We each have our little pocket of joy buried within us, and we can find it surprisingly easily. Just look one more time, breathe, and think. Live simply to live and to experience the art of living. For once, put aside manmade social, political, and material constructions and reach out to touch the universe.  In these overly competitive times, we may forget the magic of every moment, but if we just take the time to wonder, it will all come flooding back. If we all endeavor to fight a little less and live a little more, our pocket of joy will find us.