When I was young, I used to wear whatever my mom chose for me as all mothers do for their kids. As I grew up, I started choosing clothes on my own, and I always felt comfortable about what I am wearing, whether its loose pants, faded jeans, light or dark colours. Nobody told me that you are not looking good in these pants or this shirt doesn’t suit you. I am a short-heighted person and obviously, I am not embarrassed about it. I was a happy child who was not aware of this entire concept which people of my age inculcated in me as I stepped into my teenage and adult years.
They started mocking my dressing sense, making fun of my short height, my interests and so on. They began saying things like: “You have a poor dressing sense” or “Why are you so small” and making fun of me with other people. As a result, I started feeling inferior because of the way they made fun of me. I started hating myself for being who I was. Such incidents left me crying, depressed, and in a state of anxiety. I instantly changed from being a happy child to a boy with tons of sadness residing inside him just because of what people think. This led to my physical health weakening as well. I developed dark circles, continuous headaches and so on.
Why do we need to talk about this? Because mental health is crucial and it is something that cannot only be treated with just medicines. It is also treated with love, affection, compliments, positivity, smiles, encouragement, laughter, forgetting people’s flaws and accepting them the way they are. These emotions are what help make people happy and confident. One should be a person brave enough to love, strong enough to give compliments and encourage. It’s all related to your positive mentality that you are not hurting other people by your words even if they are said in jest. You never know how badly negative vibes and words damage people from inside.
My vision changed a lot by the grace of Allah, I left all those irrational thoughts in the past. But how I did it is another side of the story. What I am trying to say is that don’t let society’s definition of perfection overpower you and shake your confidence. Do whatever you like, wear whatever you want to wear and do it with full confidence. That’s the key, trust me. Everything you hold originally is beautiful in its own way.
