Beauty

I was thinking about beauty. How girls worldwide, including myself (and not to forget guys) spend tonnes and tonnes of money, time, and aggravation on trying to look their best.

It's not necessarily about attracting the opposite sex, most would say, but to feel good about themselves. I was just curious about why looking good usually equates to feeling good. What is it about the aesthetically 'pleasing' that draws the eye, and as such gives us that confidence?

I'm sure I speak for many by saying that I'm way more comfortable with my appearance today than I was as a child. Something like the ugly duckling story. A huge part of that is adjusting the way we look to the way others around us, whom we judge beautiful, look.

When I did KI last year, I came across Photography by Susan Sontag, who wrote something cool. She said that today most of us judge beauty by the way we look in photographs. That struck me, because why would the way I look on a 2D film be more important than the presence I exude in real life? What happened to non-photographic beauty, the natural beauty of a person that comes from more than the outer shell? Why is the standard of beauty a comparison of how light reflects off you into the little eye of a lifeless machine? Okay, so I reflect light a bit funny while she reflects it mightily well. So what.

I know people who at first may not grab your attention but grow more beautiful in your eyes each day. This kind of beauty is intangible, nothing I can put my finger on. It's the kind of light in the eyes, optimism and excitement she carries with her that just makes you want to be her best friend.

Even features wise, you cannot look at a person and shelf him or her away in that first impression. I find myself staring at people I've known forever even after such a long time in their acquaintance. If you look properly, you always find lovely things about them. Surprise yourself - take a closer look at someone you think you know and observe something special about them. Just a smile can make a tremendous difference.

Beauty is nothing without personality and a wonderful heart. A happy averagely pretty girl blossoms while a person with perfect features withers when he/she doesn't invest in the inside.

It's not the physical beauty that continues to attract me after awhile, but the joy I feel around a person.

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My UCAS Track says I have been Unsuccessful with University of Sheffield. I wonder what rejection from another particular university is going to feel like. The funny thing is it's not even really a part of my expectant future, so why should it matter?