My alarm clock buzzes suddenly, violently interrupting my dream. My eyebrows slowly rise; my eyes squint open to glance around. Slowly and unwillingly, I crawl out of bed and head toward the bathroom. The light temporarily blinds me as I glance in the mirror. The boring same old face that has been staring back at me for the past 22 years greets me. I look at my forehead and find my mole mocking me. Sighing, I begin to wash my face and make mental notes on how flawed my face is. Before I continue to pick out the little things I hate, a pair of blue eyes stare back at me. The piercing look brings my back to reality. My eyes are probably my favorite part of my face. My eyes, my deep sapphire blue eyes are the single most unique feature about myself. I am currently the only blue-eyed member of my brown-eyed family. For as long as I could remember, my eyes have always stood out the most.
The term “we are our own biggest critics” applies to me. I don’t really know why, but I criticize myself so much. But every time someone compliments on my eyes, my self-esteem shoots up. It is the one thing no one else in my family posses and it is also the reason why I love the color blue. The fact that I have blue eyes has always been a great reminder to love myself.
We must recognize the fact that our faces mean so much more than just a pair of eyes, a nose, ears, and a mouth. Our faces are one of the most criticized things about ourselves. I personally put so much focus on my face and why do I do that? Because my face represents who I am. I am recognized by the world through my face. When someone asks if they know me, my face pops up in their head. It is how things are. Essentially, our faces are symbolic to who we are and what we represent. It is through our faces we are able to determine our own connection with that particular person the face belongs to.
After all, how else would you recognize a person? Since our face is a symbol of who we are, we also associate it with how we value beauty. Our society associates beauty with the celebrities our media shows us and we strive to look like Hollywood starlets. It is a disease we are fed everyday through multiple outlets. Most of us are not aware of it, but with everything we watch and read, we are injected with this poisonous philosophy of beauty. It is unfortunate we do this because once we compare ourselves to others; we lose a sense of our own true beauty. We become consumed with criticizing ourselves that the face we were given is no longer good enough.
In spite of the fact that we are becoming more self critical, there is still hope for us. Since we are always criticizing ourselves in front of the mirror (I am guilty of it), I find it most helpful to pick out the one thing that you would never change and use it as an anchor to your own given beauty. Which brings me back to my own reflection; there are so many things I would change about myself. But I know for sure that I would never change my eyes. You know how people say eyes are the windows to the soul; perhaps, I love my soul more than I love my own body. Every day, I make sure I take a good look at my blue eyes and thank God for giving me such a wonderful color to stare at and for having a lovable soul.
