OK, so there is this trend lately to make sure that everyone is ‘beautiful.’ And I’m not particularly on board.
See, to me, everyone has strengths. Everyone has weaknesses. There’s nothing wrong with that. Some people are short, some people are dumb, some people are ugly. Those sound like awful words, and in some ways they are and shouldn’t be used in polite company. However, I don’t think the solution is to redefine the antonyms of those words so that they apply to absolutely everyone.
Dictionary.com defines beauty as “the quality present in a thing or person that gives intense pleasure or deep satisfaction to the mind, whether arising from sensory manifestations (as shape, color, sound, etc.), a meaningful design or pattern, or something else (as a personality in which high spiritual qualities are manifest).” However, I feel like most people define it as visually pleasing when it is used in a generic context. If something is not intensely visually pleasing, it is not beautiful.
But my point is this: People do not have to be beautiful to be good and of worth.
You don’t have to be ‘normal,’ or clever, or pretty, or talented, or even functional, to be good. Period. Being good is all about your choices, which are unrelated to any of those.
The people I know who are not ‘normal’ (aka ‘weird’) are great because they add humour and variety to my life.
The people I know who are not clever can be great because they teach me the value of perseverance and trying even when they won’t ever do very well.
The people I know who are not fully functional teach me the value of persisting despite obstacles, and finding alternative ways to get things done. The ones that are truly and completely not functional, teach me to love and to serve without expecting anything in return.
The people I know who are not pretty teach me to look beyond the surface for other qualities.
Now, I have known a lot of annoying people. But most of them are annoying because of their choices, not because of vacuous societal judgments or inborn traits.
So embrace the good in you, fight the bad, always try your best, and you will always be splendid. You don’t need to be the best at everything–or even ANYTHING–to be wonderful.