We had been walking side by side, the two of us
Two different minds attached to two different mindsets,
And as we crossed the street you told me “I don’t understand why you cut your hair so short.”
I looked at you
And softly said “Name me one reason that I shouldn’t have cut it.”
And you looked back with those sharp eyes of yours and your handsome features
And told me in a matter of fact voice that was as cold as the night we were walking in:
“So people wont look at you and cringe.”

Your words stuck me with a sense of enormous sadness.
As shocked tears formed and blurred my vision,
You turned your head away and grasped at words
Anything to make what had come out of your mouth seem softer.
“Wait, I-“
I cut you off with a shake of my head and a smile through my tears.
I realized I wasn’t crying because you had called me ugly,
I was crying because I realized for the first time that people really do see ugliness in other beings,
Every single beautiful one.

That was one of the main reasons I cut my hair.
It is my choice as a woman to consider what I think is beautiful or not.
My self esteem should not be measured by the makeup I put on
Or my hairstyles.
My self esteem and beauty comes from what is inside of me
And the complex, intricate, beautiful, confident woman
I am growing into day by day.

I walked away from you crying for you
Not for me.
I look at each person who sits in this room as beautiful.
From delicate bones structures and hair shaved on one side and long on the other
To glasses and deep eyes that hide behind them.
Why is it that people look around them and tell themselves
“I am not as good as that person,
I am not as beautiful,
I am not as cool or wonderful or funny”
And their self esteem falls.

Why cant they look at the people around them and see those peoples strengths
And their own strengths inside of themselves because of it?

I am single because of this hair and the way I wear little make up.
I am single by the way I sit down next to boys and tell them
“I want a relationship.
I want to talk to you about how I think the stars are holes where my best friends fell through,
I want to go on a date and kiss with our clothes on.
I want to know what is inside of you,
What you like and don’t like.
I don’t want to look at you and see a person,
I want to look at you and see an intricate piece of work that I was lucky enough to see the true colors of.
I want to do all of that so when we touch skin to skin,
Its making love
Not screwing.”

I am single because I have the courage to walk away from the beaten path
And shed myself of this hair,
This idea of a beautiful woman
And show my true colors for everyone to see and not be afraid of whether they think I am beautiful or not
Because I am beautiful in my own way
And the person who is right for me will be of the same mindset
And see past the hair
And past the face
And see my heart and the beauty of its light.

I cry for those who do not see it
For they are missing out on the most passionate, tangible beauty there ever was;
The human soul in its rawest form.

So for all the people in this room that see past this façade
And look at my mind and heart that are pouring out these words,
and say to yourself “She is really something isn’t she?”

I thought the same thing about each of you the moment I met you

Because you are all just that beautiful.