Looks Aren't Really That Important
2017-03-11
Looks Aren’t Really That Important
By Wang Yifei (王怡菲), a 7th grader of Zhengzhou Middle School
Now I come to think of it, I spent half of my life studying in school and that is not a short time. It means that at least half of our habits and personalities are formed in schools.
I am studying in Zhengzhou Middle School where the students come from all parts of the city, some of them from other cities. It was quite impossible for all the students to arrive at school at seven o’clock. As a result, almost all the kids have to live in the school.
It is not a bad thing, of course, because I am totally 100% supportive of my wonderful school though something does remind me of why some parents are totally 100% against letting their kids live in school. I used to not get the point of this idea because I think that staying at school, far from parents’ reach, is awesome. But staying beyond parents’ reach might be a bad thing sometimes. Why?
It goes like this:
One of my friends is quite popular at class. She is the only one who can have her long hair while we have to cut ours for the excuse that she’s an expert on dancing which makes her stand out. I had thought that she would have nothing to complain about in this world of short-hair, but just the other day, she dragged me one day to the bathroom only to let me identify if her nose is too flat to be pretty.
It was hard to keep a straight face since the scene there was so weird and ridiculous. So there I was, standing side by side with my friend, I was bending over her face to check if her nose was too flat. Of course, that didn’t happen. I was saying this only because I thought this would be the most reasonable scene if I did check her nose. In fact, the truth is, I laughed and laughed for nearly ten minutes, completely ignoring my friend’s worried expression.
You might say that I was not being very kind to my own best friend, but what would you do if you were in a situation like that? Luckily, my friend was quite patient. She just stood there with a hilarious expression on her face, watching me laughing my heart out.
I was also pretty thankful that she made me think of what I used to be and what I am now.
Maybe somewhere between fifth grade and sixth grade, I got into this huge emotional circle of wondering if I am pretty. Perhaps it was because everyone around me was fussing over it so much that I was in it too. I was in America at that time and like I said, every grade was ruled by one or a group of popular girls. They put on necklaces, and earrings, and nail polish. They dressed in fancy clothes, cool shoes and decorated with a perfect hat. Their idea of fashion was just what the whole grade was talking about. Now I come think of it, it was totally and entirely meaningless trying hard to decide which pair of shoes or which color of nail polish I should put on tomorrow. This is a pursuit of beauty, only in a wrong and idiotic way.
The true meaning of beauty lies in our everyday life. The first sign of spring, a warm welcome at the end of a long and tiring journey, a smile, or a glance all means something at a certain time or area. On our way of life, things could get really hard and sometimes we would think of giving up, but beauty was always there, helping us to find confidence, leading our way, decorating our lives to make it more colorful.
To get beauty isn’t hard at all: we just need to have a pair of eyes, eyes of discovery, eyes of enjoy… We not only need eyes to praise the beauty of other things and other people, we also need eyes for praising our own beauty. Everyone was born to this world with a destiny, this destiny might be large, and it might be small. Everyone is good at something and is bad at something equally, no one is perfect. It will be as hard journey if you keep comparing these qualities that you don’t have to others because that would only weaken your strength.
You have to truly see what you are good at and dig that awesome quality of yours up. You might find that a scientist is a terrible cook, and a farmer might be wonderful in making the crops grow. These things seem to be isolated from each other, but they are closer than we think, which is to make our own life better, and to make this world a better place.
I looked up at my friend when I finally stopped laughing, but the urge of laughter still swarmed over me as I tried to explain to her that looks aren’t really that important, what truly matters is how you treat everyone, how your grades are, and how you battle through the grounds of life.
“Even if you don’t have a pretty face, you can treat everyone warmly and then they will feel your warmness. See, every mistake could be replaced by another good thing, so why should you fussing over a flat nose when you could use this opportunity to read a few pages of a book?”
“No one is perfect, but we have to live in that imperfect way. That’s how things work in this strange but strict world. Besides you can’t change what have been already done, like your looks, so you have to try hard on those things you can change. So, wipe your tears clean and strut towards the great unknown!”
That’s all I’ve been able to say.
(997 words)
Commendable views about "looks" when applied to the concept of beauty. However, it is a fact that "looks" are important when first impressions need to be made; for example interviews and meeting people for the first time. It takes a few minutes or longer for a person to reveal their personality and attributes and unfortunately a "bad" "look" may not provide that opportunity.
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