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Don’t judge a book by its cover |
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Tuesday, 06 March 2007 |
The lyrics of a Mary J. Blige song titled “Take Me as I Am” states in the chorus, “So take me as I am or have nothing at all. Just take me as I am or have nothing at all.”
Throughout the song, Blige sings about finding herself and liking who she is in spite of all the baggage and troubles within her life.
Finding
out who you really are on the inside can be hard. Some of us do not
like what we see when we look in the mirror, so what do we do?
We search the Internet for the best plastic surgeon, pay the money to
get the procedure, go through weeks of pain, all in order to look in
the mirror and say, “I am finally beautiful.”
Today you can see so many people change their bodies in order to look like society’s standard of beauty.
A questionnaire taken from Dr. Matthew Concannon’s Web site, a member
of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, stated that 3 percent of
all cosmetic surgery is performed on people 18 years old or younger.
What has happened within our society that teens feel the need to change themselves just to fit some mold?
Dictionary.com defines self-esteem as, “a realistic respect for or favorable impression; self-respect.”
I used to struggle with self-esteem. I could never see what others saw,
and I had to climb over so many obstacles to get where I am now.
I used to watch Television, and I did not see any girls who looked like
me. When I did, their character was always the loud, crazy one that
everyone laughed at.
At times I wanted to change my body, but something kept telling me that
it didn’t matter what was on the outside if the inside looked bad.
Self-esteem is a big issue for everyone, no matter how old. However,
today, if you’re not happy with the way you look, you can easily get it
fixed.
No more are we going to the gym and eating right to try to loose the
weight. No more are we trying to uplift the curves of a woman. No more
are we trying to take pride in the natural beauty that God created.
People look for the “quick fix” and even then they are not happy.
According to Concannon’s Web site, 21 percent of cosmetic patients go
back to have more surgeries. The costs for these surgeries range from
$149 to $5,550.
That’s a lot of money in order to look like everyone else.
Is it really seen as self-respect to spend so much money on a temporary fix?
Don’t think that females are the only ones getting these high-cost
procedures done. Since 2003, according to Concannon, the number of men
getting cosmetic surgeries increased by 8 percent. Out of the total
number of surgeries, men accounted for nearly 1.2 million.
I wanted to write about self-esteem, connecting it to plastic surgery,
to show how radical we – as a society – have become regarding how we
look.
It starts on the inside first.
A friend of mine always asks me why worry about the things you cannot change? Why change what
makes you different?
Hopefully as you read this you get inspired to look within yourself and love that person.
I hate to see girls and guys hurt themselves just because someone made fun of the way they look.
Quit pointing fingers at other people and laughing at them for things they cannot change.
Be respectful of the differences among us. Be inspired, be encouraged and, most importantly, remember to be you.
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