The Ugly Duckling Syndrome

  In high school I was in a cute little play called “Everything you need to know you learned in Kindergarten”. It’s a charming tale that’d be worth your while to see live if you ever get the chance but what’s truly amazing is how true this statement is. It’s easy to forget the simple yet profound lessons we learned as a child and one such story we all could do to remember is “The Ugly Duckling.” You remember the ugly duckling who felt bad about the way he looked compared to the other cute yellow duckies. Only it turned out that the ugly duckling was not a duck at all but a stray swan egg that wound up in the wrong nest. But even when she grew into the beautiful swan she was destined to be she had to be convinced of her own loveliness.

    Whether we’d like to admit it or not perhaps we’ve all been that ugly little duck. I certainly have and like the swan among ducks I was not born with the insecurities but fooled into them. As a kid I never put too much stock into my looks. Being the daughter of the original Diva my mom always made sure her daughters stayed prim and proper. She was a single mom though and around my 6   ^th grade year she went back into the work force. Suddenly I was in charge of my own grooming. At first I was excited to pick out my own clothes and style my own hair but it was definitely trial and error. I thought I was holding my own until one day in math class I happened to overhear my name on the lips of a classmate I harbored a little crush on.

 

“Hey y’all think Brittany ugly. I think she ugly,” he whispered to a small group. The answers was a mixture of muffled snickers and thinly veiled laughter. What really stood out to me as I faced forward and pretended not to hear them was the unanimous consent. Before then I’d had nothing but adults oohing and awing over the dainty little dresses my mother outfitted us in. I was always told I was a cute kid but as I stood on the threshold of women hood the verdict was in. I wasn’t a cute kid anymore I was ugly or so I began to think. After hearing my classmate’s opinion of me I found myself examining my features in the mirror in an all new way, dissecting my every feature trying to figure out what the problem was. What made me ugly, I asked my reflection.

 

 

Well it’d yet to be a year later that the same boy was trying to get with me. My answer was a satisfied no. And he wasn’t the only one. It was at that age that I developed certain, Ahh hmm, womanly endowments that happened to turn heads. Yet like the swan as the accolades came rolling in I was not ready to believe in my own charm. Also like the swan when she finally saw her own reflection it did not matter how many people told me I was pretty until I could finally look in the mirror and actually see myself instead of someone’s opinion of me.

    So boys and girls of all ages remember what you learned from the ugly duckling. Especially if you’re going through that awkward transition from kid to adult. Too often people base you’re so called attractiveness on what you wear and how your hair is done as opposed to what you look like. It sounds cliché but beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder and there’s nothing more attractive than confidence. Just be sure to always hold your head up high, square your shoulders, stick your chest out and have the courage to speak up. Because if you know in your heart that you are beautiful (because you are) others can’t help but to notice.
   Don’t let others opinion of you make you withdraw into yourself. You have too much to offer the world. There’s something shining inside of you that you may not even know is there. If you can just find the courage to be yourself you’ll be surprised how people well the right people will respond. Anyone who doesn’t like it is beneath you, point blank period.