I believe that no matter what people say, just be you. Stand up for yourself. There are a lot of people in the world today, trying to impress and please the needs of others. What others have to say about you shouldn’t matter.
As a child, I thought life was perfect. I was wrong. I didn’t know that just a small change to your appearance would cause friends to make fun of you. I believed that friends would always be there no matter what. This was true until I received a letter saying I needed glasses.
It was back in 3rd grade, around the spring time, a note from the principal's office informed me that I didn’t have 20/20 vision and needed glasses. When I visted the eye doctor, seeing all the different types of glasses on the wall made me think it wasn’t going to be so bad. I thought wearing glasses would be pretty cool because I was able to pick out my favorite color for the frames and even the shape. The night before school I could barely sleep, I was so eager to go to school the next day and show off my new eye wear.
Walking into class the next morning, my whole life seemed to be tumbling down into pieces right before my eyes. One step in class and everyone laughed until their sides started cramping. I moved quickly to my seat in shame and put my head down as I sat in the chair. I wanted to cry but it was bad enough that they were laughing at what I thought was “cool”.
“Hey, you have four-eyes, you have four-eyes, “students chanted throughout the room. I was becoming so angry, making me boil with anger as they kept going on with the chant. The teacher calmed the class and told me that everything was going to be okay. Okay? This wasn’t okay. I didn’t want to hear what anybody had to say. The whole school day was miserable, laughs here, and laughs there.
After school, my mother knew something was wrong because I didn’t walk in as cheerful as I usually do. Once I finally gave in and told her what happened, she began to smile.
“Baby girl, you’re beautiful. Glasses or not,” she said. She went to her room and got her glasses and put them on. “I wear glasses too, my friends laughed, but once they got used to it, they stopped”, she explained, rubbing my shoulder.
She explained how people are always going to talk about you, say harsh things to upset you, but all you can do is smile, look over it and keep moving forward. I began to feel hope as I listened to my mother’s inspirational words. The next day of school, I walked in, smiling from ear to ear. I knew that everything was okay now, my mother never tells me anything wrong. A few students ended up having to get glasses and they didn’t like them. I smiled to them and said, “You're wearing glasses too? But what’d you say about me…."
