Little did I know that by the end of the trip, I would be reminded of a life lesson I learned from the movie Mean Girls. That's right, Mean Girls. Think back with me if you will to the scene when Kady is competing against Marymount Prep with her fellow mathletes. She is chosen to compete against Caroline Krafft and in that moment she has a groundbreaking realization that I think we all need to have.
"Miss Caroline Krafft seriously needed to pluck her eyebrows. Her outfit looked like it was picked out by a blind Sunday school teacher. And she had some fifty-cent lipgloss on her snaggletooth. And that's when I realized, making fun of Caroline Krafft wouldn't stop her from beating me in this contest. Calling somebody else fat won't make you any skinnier. Calling someone stupid doesn't make you any smarter. And ruining Regina George's life definitely didn't make me any happier. All you can do in life is try to solve the problem in front of you."
That quote alone should be enough to make you think, but now I am going to layer it with my own personal experience. As we were walking out of the park we passed a man with his ears gauged. I'm talking huge gauges. Many individuals tend to think things like: Why would you do that?! He will never get a job! I'll be honest, that was my first reaction. Then I stopped and was real with myself for a second. That man could be the very best at whatever it is he does in life. His gauges don't stop him from being an incredible person. It was at this point that Kady and I had the same realization. We're all different and that doesn't stop us from being great.
I think the world would be a better place if we all strived a little harder to stop buying into the stereotypes many of us learn from a young age. I understand that there are many things that may turn you away from a person but I do not think appearance should be one of them.
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