I am enough!

By Kyla Marquez

Have you ever felt so down because you don't look like the person you want to be? The person everybody wants to be? Perfect smile, clear skin, perfect body? It hurts to think that you might never be that person. The person everybody will like because of their features. But you know what? Is it really worth the trouble? The anxiety and the pressure you will whenever you go out, just because you don't have the so-called 'beauty standards?' Be you, the more you love yourself the more people will find you beautiful (you don't need their validation though). 

A spoken word poetry by Claudia D titled 'Sa Pilipinas' talks about how fellow Filipinos criticize and bully you because of your looks. How some of them make fun of you because of your skin color, the way you dress, your braces (why would they even do that?) How they use the hashtag #NoToBullying and yet post insensitive memes online. When you have tattoos you're a bad person, you cannot be trusted. She even said she knew more people with nasty personalities going to church! (I have to agree with that.) It's sad how people base your whole personality and characteristic with the way you look. Do we really need to stoop that low? 

You don't have to change yourself to please others - actually, you don't have to please others, or say sorry for the way you look. I mean, it's pretty much their problem if they get mad for the way you look or dress. What's up with them? You didn't do anything. There's no such thing as a perfect person, if I had the nose I wanted I would be sitting next to Jesus himself. Kidding aside, we focus to much on having Eurocentric beauty standards, we are not from Europe, their noses are pointy because they literally need it to live. Why do we have beauty standards anyway? Why can't people just be appreciative? 

Claudia D's Sa Pilipinas can possibly be considered as World Literature. Will this be timeless? Probably, removing the beauty standards from our minds would take forever, but maybe her poem can make you less sad about it. Reminding you that you are beautiful no matter what they say. Is it complex? I believe it is, somewhere deep down you know there's racism and xenophobia involved. Why would there be Eurocentric standards in the first place (that's because in the old days they thought they were superior). Global? Obviously it is, especially to the brown skinned people like us. Lately, people has been appreciating Asian looks (fox eyes). Is it a masterpiece? Yes ,it is, a lot of people experience being an outcast because of their looks, because they don't look like everybody else. People need to know that it is not all about the looks and embrace yourself. Her poem might sound cliché to some because it's really not that big of a deal you could just get surgery, but the truth is it hurts more than you think and it affects your mental health badly, you can get surgery to look like the person you want to be but you don't have to wait that long to be beautiful.