There I sat on a blue bench with my best friend chatting about yesterday’s daily soap episode. As we were discussing, two girls, who had come to talk about blood donation, interrupted us. They started by explaining the eligibility criteria of the donors. Nonetheless, I don’t know if it was slip of tongue or something else, but my friend’s chubby outlook urged the one of the girls to ask her to donate blood.  

My friend looked down in shame, but I stood up for her. I told them that it was rude to body-shame people. Every individual comes in different shapes and sizes and that we should learn to accept it. 
But the incident stirred me. Those two girls represent our times when everything is measured in small waistlines, perfect height, and weight. My best friend represent every individual who has been victimized by the notion of who the social definition of beauty.

Everyone feels delighted when they’re told: “You’re beautiful.” These words actually mean that the person complimenting is attracted toward our external features. But we have been misinterpreting the phrase by evaluating it with a temporary standard of beauty. Its prominence is so evident that people follow strict diet plans to get into a perfect shape, or hide behind hazardous cosmetics. Some even starve to the point when they fall unconscious, or go as far as going under the knife for the desired look. Mankind has the tendency of labeling anyone who falls outside a specific set of specifications as ugly, or unattractive.

I wonder how human beings, the most gifted creature on this planet, take pride in lowering someone else’s self-esteem. Being called ‘ugly’ brings people a sense of dissatisfaction toward themselves. This four lettered word is capable of leaving a fatal scar that will make people wonder their worth. In my opinion, no one should be damaged to the point where they start feeling worthless. We should start appreciating people just the way they are rather than trying to find someone else in them. 

Nature is the best definition of beauty. In nature, we see all kinds of trees and flowers. They might be tall, short, pink or blue but nobody judges nature to say: “Look! What a fat tree. The heavy weight doesn’t seem good on it” or “That flower is blue. It’s so cold”. 

Instead, we say: “What a beautiful tree!” and “Blue really is unique and beautiful among all those flowers”. Nature never classifies race, caste, color, gender, shape, size or religion. It blesses every creature with love and compassion. Nature is a source of inspiration. But we don’t apply even the slightest approach of that positivity in our daily lives. Rather, we allow color, shape, size etc to determine who is beautiful and who isn’t.

We learn as we imitate our surroundings. Similarly, children learn both good and bad things about someone they look up to. This is why parents should raise their children in such a way they will not judge a person based on color, sizes, caste, height etc. so that they grow up with a beautiful perspective toward life and nature. 

We, the grownups, get lost chasing the false sense of beauty that we never realize what we are losing until it slips away from our hands. We all are made of same flesh and blood on the inside and we share the same sky. We only live once. Let’s be the best version of ourselves. It’s never too late to start again.