The Importance of NOT Being Beautiful

This is what I look like when I've just woken up. Also, what I look like in the dining halls after exercising. It's basically my natural state. These past few days I've been going through sorority recruitment and it's one of the most demoralizing experiences of my life. Being told you don't fit in after a 25 minute conversation hurts, especially when it's done multiple times in one day. Everyone knows it's based on what you wear and what you look like, because after that, it's a level playing field. There are hundreds of girls who are good at the awkward, repeated, small talk-filled conversations. It all comes down to appearance. But after this experience, I refuse to walk away from it saying that I'm not good enough. Confusingly enough, I also refuse to believe that I am just as pretty and well-dressed as those other girls. 

Sometimes, I AM NOT BEAUTIFUL. And it's okay. Sometimes I have a giant forehead and bright red hair that I have no idea what to do with. And you know what, I think that makes me lucky. Walking through the dining halls with all the perfectly dressed girls when I'm in my track pants and hair slicked back from sweat, I'm glad. And I'm glad because not being shockingly beautiful, I can choose when to stand out. I can fly under the radar until I want to be seen.

 I feel sorry for those beautiful girls who can't turn it off. They're being put into the sororities that judge them completely for their looks and there's nothing they can do about it. In the dining halls they are always noticed, so dropping a tray and tripping are remembered for longer. They are always being objectified by men, being harassed and whistled at. I say, embrace the ugly, the frizzy, the pimples. 

By being able to take off our pretty girl disguises, we are free to live our lives unencumbered by many of the trials and tribulations faced by the perfect girls. Its allows us to live a life of substance. And when we find people who can look under the giant mess and see the beauty that we have inside, they're the ones worth keeping.

And that's the importance of NOT being beautiful.