My whole life I have been an underwhelming amount of characteristics.
Dominant traits have dominated my life.
Mud brown eyes
chocolate hair.

When I was younger;
about 13
changing what I looked like seemed to be the best option
because being different is better right?

Brown eyes metamorphosed into green;
but only when I was in certain moods
that strangely never showed around others.
My mom would mention, “People would pay money for curls like yours!”
As I attacked my mess of hair with a straightener.

Bottles of hair dye piled up
as my adolescent brain spewed every reason for “just one more time” out of my mouth. 
“The color is fading.”
“This would look better on me.”
“Because I want to!”
Brown hair under chemically induced pigments
dreamed of golden fields,
but became stripes of dry straw
The closer to so called unique I became
the more I molded into everyone else.

I am no longer so young.
I have a license and it states I am 5’1 ½ feet tall,
female,
and that I have brown eyes. 

But they are not brown. 
They are fresh brewed green tea
with drizzled honey and pieces of mint
floating in a bath of steamy water.
My hair is no longer chocolate.
It is spun silk
woven into a beautiful pattern. 
A glowing halo of warmth.

Because I am what I am. 
I am not as simple as people want me to seem.
I am more complex.
I am a roadmap of veins only I can navigate. 
I am palms and fingertips of unique ridges and valleys.
I am my own planet,
A surface like no other.

My outer shell cannot summarize what's inside.
Because geodes are just rocks on the outside,
but put in the effort to crack them open
and their beautiful center is exposed.

I have broken myself open.
Seen what I am really made of.
Let myself be vulnerable
to find what is really inside.

What I am is not traits.
I am what I do.
How I treat others,
treat my world,
treat myself.

Don't let anyone simplify what you are. 
You are generations passed down
slowly perfecting themselves
developing into yourself.
You are not an abbreviation or generalization. 
You are you.