The Eyes of Others 

College is not all about books and grades. It is also about the experience and about learning new things about yourself. So far I have discovered a few things, like my passion for music, my interest in writing and many things about my personality that I did not know before. I also realized that the way in which people viewed me had always been extremely important to me. It was the reason why I dressed the way I did, the reason why I talked the way that I talked and the reason why I began to wear contacts. 

I wore them everyday and sometimes they would bother me to the point that my eyes would be red and irritated, but I refused to take them off because people thought they were actually my eyes. Or the fear of meeting someone new and not "looking nice". Till this day I still wear contacts occasionally, but thinking back it amazes me how how much trouble I went through to please the eyes of someone else while mine where in pain. 

This got me thinking about plastic surgery which is almost like my contact situation, people risk their lives to please the eyes of others. You may argue that some people do it for themselves, I don’t believe that’s possible and I’ll tell you why. If a person was to be given the option of getting plastic surgery that no one but themselves would be able to see, the flaw will remain evident to the rest of the world but themselves, would they still get it? 

More than likely they would choose the one everyone can see. This is why I don't think its possible for someone to get it only for themselves to feel better about themselves. A person would not pay thousands of dollars for a surgery that no one else but themselves would be able to see. Don’t get me wrong I am not against plastic surgery, by all means if a person feels the need to get one or many they can, I’m not here to judge anyone. But this left me wondering about the things we put ourselves through to please the eyes of others.  

Lets look at some celebrities that decided to get plastic surgery to cover up the "flaws" that they believed to have:

1996                                 2014

                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
Donatella Versace is the Vice President of the very exclusive Versace brand.




 

     1980                                                 2009               

                                                
                                                                           


Michael Jackson also known as the "King of Pop" was a famous songwriter, dancer and performer.

                                                      

   

"Lil Kim" is an American Rapper, singer-songwriter, and actress.                                                     

        1992                                       2014                                                                              

La Toya Jackson is an American singer-songwriter, and actress. 

                                       1970                        2014

All these people felt like they had a "flaw", to prevent the rest of the world from seeing this "flaw" they decided to surgically remove the "flaw" they thought they had with the risk of something going extremely wrong.  All of these before and after pictures made me think a lot about what we as society considers a "flaw" and what we consider to be beautiful. I then thought about where I am now and reflected on whether I still cared about how people viewed me, and I still care. I care less, a lot less but the truth is we will always care. Even if we say we don't it is human nature to care about what others think about them some people's opinion will matter more than others but we will always care about how we are perceived.