by Stephanie Stuart

Created on: August 06, 2008

The true measure of a human is not the smile on one's face, but their accomplishments on Earth. You cannot measure the worth of a person by the makeup on their face, the clothes on their body, or the hair on their head. A beautiful person starts on the inside, and radiates a sense of self-confidence, a grace, a poise. Not everyone can posess these qualities all at once. Some of us master one, while waiting a lifetime to master another. To say that someone is ugly goes so much deeper than the outer skin. It affects so much more.

Since people cannot control their genetic makeup, you might say that calling a person ugly based on appearance alone criticizes an entire family. Judging a person before you truly know them makes you an ugly person, no matter what you look like. Does a disfigurement make someone ugly? Some people seem to think so. They make snap judgments based on a person's disability, or scars. They make no attempt to know the true individual. A truly beautiful person does not know these boundaries. They enjoy humans as humans. They understand the differences in all of us that comprise the human race. They appreciate the quirks in all of us. Beautiful people take each encounter with another and appreciate it for what it is; an encounter. They learn from others, are selfless and kind. They laugh when the joke isn't funny, and cry when there is sad news. Beautiful people carry a sense of empathy.

It troubles me to no end that our society is so focused on beauty, and how to attain it. We have countless magazines and television shows telling us what not to wear, and which makeups are best for our skin. They debate for pages over which jeans will best fit the hourglass figure, and how to dress like a star for less. These media outlets seem to ignore the self; the part that is always adapting and changing to situations and environments. I'm done reading about jeans. Tell me about the people who are making our world a better place to live. I don't care where they are from, or what color they are. Those are the beautiful people.

To judge someone based on appearance alone leaves so much to the mind's interpretation. You could miss the friend or lover of a lifetime, all because you judged too quickly and didn't give a person a chance. It only takes a few minutes to realize the beauty of a person. If we could all appreciate each other for the souls that we are instead of the bodies, we could be living in a much different world.

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