Foriegn Affairs

Exister, c'est oser se jeter dans le monde.

Sunday, May 1, 2016

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

My Instagram is full color. I don't have any black and white photos, except for one, from all the way back to freshman year of high school. 
I also don't have any selfies.
I used to be so jealous of #selfiesundays for lots of reasons. Everyone who posted a selfie looked amazing, beautiful, and confident. Each of their pictures had lots of comments, almost all positive, except for the friends that were trying to be funny. 
Six months ago, I had acne. 
It was horrible. I started going to the dermatologist in middle school, and I was a frequent visitor. While other girls were just starting puberty, liking boys, and trying to become popular, I was trying to fix my face. I had little pimples everywhere-forehead, cheeks, chest, basically anywhere there was skin. Later, I even started to get some painful ones on my back. It would make me so uncomfortable  to be around people who would complain about their break-outs! I constantly had "break-outs" all the time! 
So,  I decided some things. 
Until my acne cleared up, I would not wear makeup, not even a little bit of mascara. I would try every remedy under the sun to wash my face, to rid myself of the curse called bad acne. Around this time, I realized that I started to only have pictures in black and white, so that my acne wasn't as prevalent in my photos. 
That's why my photos are all in color, and why this picture is so unusual.
It is black and white, and a selfie.
If you were to look at me today, you would see no acne. Before I started the medicine that would clear it up, I didn't know that foreheads were supposed to be smooth, that gargantuan zits weren't a thing. I also never thought in a million years that people would tell me that my face looked good. The first time someone said that to me, I almost started to cry. 
I call this my miracle. I have more confidence and feel happier. I am now comfortable in my skin, something that I couldn't say for a really long time.
The lesson of my acne taught me something. I never thought I was pretty with my acne, but I knew that I was beautiful on the inside. I also understood that those who became my friends weren't my friends because I was attractive, but because they saw something that you couldn't see on the surface.

My words of advice- do not judge a book by its cover. It might sound cliche, but its the truth. Get to know the "ugly" kid, or the shy kid, or even the "he's kind of weird" kid. We are all going through something, why not go through it together?