Being different is beautiful

Being different is beautiful and special. Children and adults seem to categorize themselves into groups, those they call normal and those who aren’t. In school children form their own groups, the popular, the want to be popular and the outcast. The outcasts are usually the ones who get teased a lot because they are classified as different from the norm. People judge what they don’t understand, they judge clothing styles, weight, disabilities, exceptional intelligence, physical differences and so on. Everyone is too busy trying to fit in that they don’t see how being different is beautiful. They can’t even see that they too are different. God did not make everyone exactly alike. We all have unique qualities although some people’s differences are more noticeable then others. Sometimes children try very hard to be like the rest just to fit in that he or she forgets being yourself is beautiful in many ways. If we were all alike, his would be a pretty boring world.

In school, I was on the very bottom of the outcast list. The outcasts didn’t even talk to me. I was different, because of a learning disability. My classmates just couldn’t understand why it was so hard for me to learn. They could read when I couldn’t, they participated in regular classwork while I went to a Special Education classroom, I needed my test read to me and they didn’t. I wasn’t like them so in their eyes I didn’t belong in the same class as them. They started calling me names like retard, dummy, stupid and so on. They threw rocks at me while I played in my yard, they harassed me on the bus and all day in school. My classmates were too busy judging me for something they didn’t understand, to see I was like them. I cried like them, I hurt like them, I had my own likes and dislikes like them, and I was beautiful like them. No matter how hard they tried to be like each other, they too were different. No, they didn’t have a learning disability, but each had different looks, different likes, they had their own little quirks and they each had their own personalities. When I started high school, my classmates started doing their hair in fancy styles, they had a certain style of clothing and wore makeup. I was different again. I hated makeup, I didn’t like stylish clothes and I was happy with just brushing my hair back, but that wasn’t good enough to them. They teased me. I was ugly according to them. They asked why I wore rags and didn’t put on makeup. They teased me about it every chance they got. A couple of my teachers tried to change me. They showed me how to do my hair differently, put makeup on and how to dress. I tried to change, but I kept itching my eyes smearing my mascara and rubbing my eye shadow off. The lipstick felt uncomfortable so I kept licking my lips. I got a perm and looked like a fluff ball. My teacher took me in the hall to tell me she could see my bra through my new stylish shirt. Instead of gaining friends, I became embarrassed and the center of mean remarks. The bullying continued and I loss myself and what it was that made me unique. What made me who I was were the things that made me different. I wanted to be accepted like everyone else, but I want to be accepted for me, not for my attempts to be like the others. Being different was what made me beautiful inside and out. Embracing my uniqueness and having a disability others didn’t understand is why I stood out. It’s why they picked on me. The problem was they were too busy trying to be alike to embrace their own special qualities. We are not all alike. We are all different. We have similarities, we may even like some of the same things, but yet we are different. Differences are beautiful and should be respected not made fun of. God doesn’t make ugly people. In some way or some form there is beauty in us all. Don’t pick on the person who’s different, instead take time to get to know the person. Look into their souls and you will find they are, in some ways, just like you. Don’t look at their difference as revolting, but as something special. Look at your own differences and cherish them. Sit down with that classmate who no one will sit with and get to know him or her for who she or he is. We are all different and we are all beautiful. I once thought my difference was my curse and what made me ugly. In time, I found the beauty in my differences and I now embrace them. I have found friends with whom I have things in common and who accept me as I am. Our friendships work because we accept each other’s uniqueness. It took me a long time to see my own beauty and to let it shine, but now I no longer care what others think.