Chiseled Hearts

I am baffled when I think about all of the accommodations I have made to make myself more comfortable in this world.

Society teaches us that looking a certain way is beautiful. You must be thin enough to wear the same size as a toddler, but then you risk being too skinny which must obviously mean you have some sort of insecurity or eating disorder which is absolutely not okay since any sign of being vulnerable is frowned upon. Then you must be "curvy" enough to turn the heads of pubescent boys - and if you're lucky - you may even make it on to one of their SnapChat stories with a flattering caption such as, "bunz 4 dayz". You also must have all the right clothes. No more high-waisted shorts because (for the last time!) boys HATE those. A skirt short enough to show off your long, recently tanned legs, but not short enough to upset your jealous boyfriend is ideal. Your hair should be long and if it's naturally straight - curl it. If it's naturally curly- straighten it. Do everything you can to hide all the blemishes on your face, because that may lead people to believe they were caused by stress, and beautiful people do not stress. Cover up all the scars from the battles you have overcome, hide the wrinkles from long nights of laughter, and for the love of all that is good and decent, pluck your eyebrows.

Now this is a simple an possibly overused example of how society alters our mindset. I'm not saying that being beautiful according to society's standards is bad. My point is that because of how easily accessible and overly advertised the prototype for physical beauty is, we are prone to deem our passions "silly" or "irrelevant" for the sake of what is considered normal. It makes sense, as ridiculous as it is. For us, being normal is comfortable.

As we have seen, beauty can all too easily morph from an all-encompassing definition to a specific and exact type. It's easy to recognize this with our physical features, but what I'm concerned about is what our hearts find beautiful. Society can teach us that loving certain types of people is ridiculous, just as easily as it can convince us that wrinkles from smiles are ugly. A prototypical body is pretty awful, but a prototypical heart is absolutely vile.

While every person looks naturally unique from the outside, our souls are simply inimitable. We are each born with different passions than our neighbor and that is a truth we should take such delight in. Because of this, we should never, no matter what this world says, oppress that little voice inside of us that says, "Hey this matters.". We should never tailor our hearts to this world's teaching that things and security and temporary happiness trump that brave little voice.

There is another voice in our head, unfortunately. This one is pestering and sometimes much louder than anything else we hear. The one that says, "Don't be silly. Don't worry about them. If you spend too much time caring about them, you may not be able to have all of this." When that voice gets louder, it's because it knows how powerful the human heart can be when it doesn't conform to this world's selfish requests. When you feel defeated by that voice and are ready to give up on that burning desire to make a difference in the lives you feel drawn to touch, choose love.

When you find something that makes your heart beat faster, whether it is giving food to the homeless or being there for an abused child, don't let the hideousness of this world tell you it doesn't matter. Don't believe the lie that "someone else will take care of it" or that "you'll have time later in life". You were made as an extraordinary human with unmatched interests. There is no one else in the world who looks at the world like you do. Let us not chisel our hearts as society has tried to make us chisel our bodies, and let the voice that screams about love be heard over all else. Let us make accommodations for our souls rather than the desperate cry of the society.