Vanity is Receding

Mirrors are awful. Media is awful. Sexuality is awful.

These things all influence our vanity. Sometimes to extremes. They make us self conscious, upset, and usually uncomfortable.

I am no stranger to this game. Sure, we all hear about women in the media, but men can have issues with their body image too. For me, recently, its been my hairline. It is receding.

How frivolous is this? I mean sure. It's not a big deal. I have my health. But, lets look at some pictures of models with ideal hairlines in order to emphasize my point.

 


I mean, obviously the point of modeling is to be beautiful. However, the fact that we idolize this societal driven image of beauty is absurd. We should be idolizing intelligence or passion, not hair.

 

So why should I feel so terrible about the fact that my hairline isn't as youthful as it was 4 years ago. I'm educated with a college degree, I continuously seek new sources of information to wrap my mind around, and I challenge everything in order to find out how or why it is happening. I should not be feeling so terrible about something as frivolous as a receding hairline

Because of this, I have decided to accept my growing forehead. Yesterday I had my haircut short in order to flatter what is naturally happening to me. It was a huge blow to my ego, but honestly, it does look a lot better.

I don't think it is healthy to compare your beauty to others. You should only ever have to compare yourself to yourself. Don't try to be like Chris pine or Megan Fox. Find out how you can flatter your body as it is, and go with it. No one will ever say that you look bad if you can work with what cards you were given.

My endeavors in self beauty are clearly only the tip of the ice berg of the huge problem of body image in America. If you don't give into what causes the negative feelings of self worth, then we can eliminate the need to rely on the main sources of eating disorders, body dysmorphia, and self esteem issues. This expectation also leads to bullying in schools. It's a parasite that will grow unless we, as adults, make a strong effort to change the future for everyone.

Like my hairline, vanity can recede. However, unlike my hairline, it won't recede unless you make it.

Working for Happiness

Recently I have graduated from Penn State for my undergraduate education. In America, now-a-days, we see it as a very common occurrence that a person is required to have a degree in order to join the work force, or, in many cases, the ranks of unemployment. The degree has become something of a lie that we are told in high school. We are convinced that if we go to college we will be well off financially, and therefor happy. Unfortunately, many jobs that required a BA several years ago now requires an MA. Why is this? Who decided that in order to be successful you needed to be in more debt (or be privileged enough to have family/inheritance/ect to pay for your education)?

No thanks to writers like Lena Dunham, who apparently can make a career out of exploiting the sad white girl market, post undergrads resort to obtaining jobs in career fields that either have nothing to do with their degree, or totally sacrifice their happiness. What really bothers me is the latter of these paths. Why on earth would anyone take a job that makes them unhappy?

I recently watched a fabulous documentary called Beauty is Embarrassing. It follows the career and life of Wayne White, the artist. He is best known for his puppetry in the 80s hit TV show PeeWee's Playhouse, but he also is a painter, performer, father, and husband. Although the film is fascinating for simply showing his work, he also highlights a very important point about life. That is to do what you love, and it will lead you where you want to go.

Sure, not everyone loves making puppets or painting, but I think that this can be applied to all fields. If you love science, do that, and don't do it to make money or because someone tells you you should. Do what you want to do.

Currently (for the summer) I am working as a carpenter in a theatre scene shop, as well as some freelance design work. I'm making enough money, and am working long hours, but I'm happy. I am happy to go into work each morning, and when I go to sleep I don't dread waking up. Who would want to dread the next day before having experienced it?

Sure, not everyone can think this way. Money, unfortunately, is the driving force of our nation. It forces us into these financial boxes, and somehow leads us to be unhappy. But, to tell you the truth, I would rather be happy with less money than well off and hating my job. Not everyone can let themselves obtain that mentality, but I do love what I do, and I'll never be a pathetic character on 'Girls'.

Being Ill as an Adult

We grow up vicariously through being sick. As children, in fact, we occasionally looked forward to sick days! This meant we could watch daytime cartoons (Arthur, anyone?), eat as much soup as we could, and, best of all, spend time with our family. For me, being sick meant I got to sit on my grandmother's couch, eat saltine crackers with a ginger ale, and watch The Price is Right! She would tend to my every need, and make sure that I would feel better. It has been imbedded into my internal harddrive that being sick meant being taken care of.

As an adult, however, this is much less the case. Today I woke-up (and by 'woke-up' I mean decided to give into having been awake since 3:00AM from a sore throat and body aches) and had to evaluate whether or not I was in a state where I could attend work. My thought process used to be"I am sick, PLEASE don't make me go to school, take me to Grandma!"But, I am no longer a student, and my Grandmother passed away 2 years ago. Now I say, "I am sick, but I need to work so that I can buy soup for the next time that I am sick."

How terrible is that? As adults we can't slow down for a moment to make sure that we are healthy.

I can't even get upset for having gotten ill (which I did ask off from work, mind you), because it was entirely my fault. This past week I was bouncing around between two part-time jobs, as well as my responsibilities to a local community theatre. Not to mention the fact that I was up at 6:30 everyday to go to the gym before work. I literally worked myself into illness. I didn't allow myself to relax and recoup from the day, instead I kept myself busy until I passed out from exhaustion.

Being sick as an adult has become such an inconvenience. We see it as "How am I supposed to work now?!" instead of "I should moderate my work so that I don't get sick in the first place."Yet, we live in such a world where we have debt, loans, and other financial responsibilities that require money to facilitate the burden. As a college graduate as of May, I have a lovely 6 month grace period until my loans come in, so this sick day is not as much of a burden. However, all I can think about are the single mothers in America who work 3 jobs to feed their children, keep a roof over their heads, and educate them. How can a single mother take a sick day? Does she risk losing a job? Why don't we have support for that woman so she can take a day off in order to feel better? Where is her Grandma with saltine crackers?

Oddly enough, this is my thought process while I lay in bed, ill. Sure I don't have children or huge debt to weigh me down, yet. But, those things may (or will, in the case of debt) happen. My only hope is that I can be in a place where I have the time in the day to take care of myself. Until then, I will lay in bed and blog about it. Being ill as an adult isn't much fun, but luckily The Price is Right is on at 11AM.