I Don't Like Beauty Salons

I hate beauty salons.

Okay, it's a strong word. Let me rephrase. I dislike beauty salons.
I only cut my hair once a year. The maximum would be three times if I ever bothered to get it trimmed. Every time I have to go to a salon, I need someone else to come with me because I hate it. (yes, I'm a girl and I'm almost 20)

Why do I hate salons?

The place is full of judgemental looking people. I have no idea about hair care/regime/products/and so on. And, because the salon is only 5 minutes from my house by motor cycle, I always go there with shorts and my brother's old t-shirt that looks baggy on me. You would not think that I'm a girl who knows fashion and/or beauty when you see me. (But that is literally who I am)

The receptionist in salons always looks like they know everything and they will judge you by how you look. They ask me what I want and I was like, "I want a cut". Then they always look at me like I haven't finished my sentence.

After quite a long pause, then they would ask you if you want a wash, and a blow dry, do you want treatment or color, who is your preferred hairdresser, and so on and so forth. To which I would answer, yes, maybe, no, I don't know... And the receptionist would look at me like I'm a 3 year old child.

Everyone who come in and out of salons when I'm in one would always know everything. They would know the receptionists (first and foremost). If the receptionist says something along the lines of, "You have to wait for (insert hairdresser name)", those people would walk right to the person and chat to them like they're some old friend (but you wouldn't be able to hear it).

What are they talking about???

Next. I don't know if this is just me or do other people's hairdresser would do whatever they think looks good on you? Maybe because I cut my hair only once a year (or less) that I don't get the same hairdresser every time?

Like, last time I cut my hair, the hairdresser asked me how I want to cut it. I answered, "Just cut it shoulder length, one length."
Next thing I know he started to explain all this things he's going to do with my hair because he said one length cut would look to stiff around my face and because I didn't want to argue, I just smiled sheepishly which he translated it as a yes.

Then comes the blow dry, which was pleasant just like when they wash your hair :)

When I came out of the salon, like most girls would feel, I hated my hair cut.
But I would come again at some point in time...
Oh the dilemma.

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A Little Flashback for 2013

• 1:What did you do in 2013 that you’d never done before?
• I live on my own
• 2:Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
• I did not  :( and I will. 
• 3:Did anyone close to you give birth?
• My friend's sister did.
• 4:Did anyone close to you die?
• Thank God, no. 
• 5:What countries did you visit?
• Australia, Singapore, Indonesia
• 6:What would you like to have in 2014 that you lacked in 2013
• I would like to have the flipping will and motivation to do things
• 7:What dates from 2013 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
• Feb 8: the first day in Australia, Aug 8 to 18: my first musical experience as a performer, Aug 22: mid year ball and the man I met after that, Winter break: meeting my best friends and Summer break: meeting my chums
• 8:What was your biggest achievement of the year?
• Surviving a year of living alone, a year in uni and performing in a musical
• 9:What was your biggest failure?
• Not getting the marks I wanted 
• 10:Did you suffer illness or injury?
• I fell from my bike
• 11:What was the best thing you bought?
• This year? tickets to home
• 12:Whose behaviour merited celebration?
• What?
• 13:Whose behaviour made you appalled?
• That guy who broke my heart
• 14:Where did most of your money go?
• food and tickets to home
• 15:What did you get really, really, really excited about?
• Anything about the musical, coming home, meeting family and friends
• 16:What song will always remind you of 2013?
• Any Macklemore songs will do
• 17:Compared to this time last year, are you: (a) happier or sadder? (b) thinner or fatter? (c) richer or poorer?
• a) sadder than usual but happier too at times b) thinner until mid year then fatter c) relative
• 18:What do you wish you’d done more of?
• Studying. 
• 19:What do you wish you’d done less of?
• Doing nonsense, watching youtube videos
• 20:How did you spend Christmas?
• Spent it with my family back home. 
• 21:Did you fall in love in 2013?
• I did not
• 22:What was your favourite TV program?
• Bones, the classic American version of Whose Line Is It
• 23:Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
• Definitely 
• 24:What was the best book you read?
• I re-read Titanium, that. 
• 25:What was your greatest musical discovery?
• Justin Timberlake's new album tbh
• 26:What did you want and get?
• New friends, chance to go home
• 27:What did you want and not get?
• Great grades, a job
• 28:What was your favourite film of this year?
• Iron Man 3, Thor The Dark World
• 29:What one thing made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
• CATS The Musical!
• 30:How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2013?
• Wear all things you see first
• 31:What kept you sane?
• My best friends and my chums, TV shows
• 32:Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
• Benedict Cumberbatch, David Tennant, Beyonce, Justin Timberlake and Macklemore
• 33:What political issue stirred you the most?
• The Indonesian political situation
• 34:Who did you miss?
• All my friends and my family
• 35:Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2013.
• You can and able. Don't hang around people who don't value your effort or trust. 
• 36:Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
• "When the dawn comes, tonight will be a memory too. Look! A new day has begun..."

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What Happen to 2013?!

Hey guys! It's the 1st of July and I'm doing a challenge from ultimateblogchallenge and I will be posting everyday of the month so I hope you guys will be enjoying everything with me (X)

Seriously, it is already the first of July, which means the half of 2013 has already gone! This is really mad considering we only have 6 months left to a new year, to 2014. It feels like it was just a month ago we were freaking out about the apocalypse.

When I look back a the first half of this wonderful year, I realised it went by really really fast. Pretty much like, I don't know, a flash of light. And I'm very very unsatisfied.

I don't think I did anything up-to-standard. Or even did anything. I just felt like the last 6 months is the period for me to explore and try new things and open up to a new beginning. Then, this upcoming 6 months will be me re-evaluating my life and getting it all back on track.

I have a valid reason but I am not going to use that to slack around some more because 6 months of doing absolute nothing last year (you'll know if you read previous posts) and 6 months of "exploration" is enough slacking for my 19 years of existence.

So, there it is, my July wish and goal: to get back on track and get back in life :)

Hope you guys have a great month ahead!

Please join me in the journey this month and tell me your hopes/wishes/goals in the comment xx 

Welcome Back to The Real World

Have you ever slip into your own imagination?

Most of the time, you imagine yourself in different situation and make everything as realistic as possible. You would imagine all the good things that you want to happen to you.

You do that because you want to believe that you can achieve what you want. You will be able to achieve what you dream. You have hope, you dream and you believe in it. And then the dream will come true.

But sometimes you can't help it when a little nudge of reality slips in the way of your imagination. See, in this case you're not being truly pessimistic about anything but you consider other alternatives. Being a realist, you would consider all the possible alternative, good or bad.

And then you just realise that the negative things that you imagine might come true. No, you don't want it to be true. But you acknowledge the chance of those happening.

Then your imagination just slips away because you don't want anything ruin your so called "perfect world".

Welcome back to the real world.

What You Hate is What You Love

It's funny how people change so drastically even when you think you them so well. Most of the time, they change to become the those people who they used to hate.

Is it just a biased view from our side that distort the image of them? Or are they really becoming 'those people'?

Or are we the one who changed in the first place?

I remember you hate people who are so full of them self. You mocked them around and you really showed it to them.

You used to be so sarcastic when people are being ignorant or arrogant around you. To be honest, it was really funny how they thought you like them when in reality you hated them to guts.

I remember when you hated people with lots of bullshits. If anything, you could be one of the anti bullshit campaign agent or something.

I remember when you despised people who are living in the clouds without looking at the people around us. I remember when you hated glamour, extravagant and over-the-top lifestyle.

I remember when you were a genuine person. You like them if you like them and hate them if you do so. You were never a two-face.

I remember when I thought we were on the same page.
I remember when I thought I knew you so well.

Funny how you change so fast from who I remember you were - who I thought you were - to someone who you used to hate. (or at least I thought you hated)

Funny how these days you did all the things you did not approve in the past.
It's funny how you did not realise...

People say: What you hate is what you love

How could I be so foolish? It's really funny how I always thought I knew you.

I really don't; never did and will not ever try again.

Life Happens, Life Begins, Life is...

Life happens when you are busy making other plans. Life begins when you are 21, or 16, or 18, or even 40. Life happens when you appreciate little things in life. When did life begin?

Life begins when you open your eyes in the morning. Be it on your own or with someone you love the most. It continues as you drag your feet to the bathroom and through until you reach your workplace or your school.

It begins when you realize you have to do this everyday, doing something that you do not enjoy. However, it happens when you see the faces of your significant other, your children, or your parents. At that moment you realize that you are doing this not only for yourself but also for them. For the people you love the most, to put that beautiful smile on them. It happens when you smile at the thought of them and the thought of them drives you, on and on.

It begins when you come back home. To the arms of the people you love and arms of people who love you. You realize that they will always be there for you. They will accept you in any condition; your best and your worst and everything in between. They will support you to do what is right and they will guide you to the light. That is the moment when your life begins.

It happens when you are tired and fed up with all the routines, all the problems and obstacles that will never go away from your sight or your mind. It happens when you are annoyed with your schoolmate, dorm mate, or fellow workers. It happens when you are rejected and down. You realize that life will never be pretty with flowers and unicorns all the time. You realize that movies will not be real life, even the ones based on true stories and such.

That is when life begins and when life happens. Life is every time you open your eyes and it will never stop even when you close your eyes every night.

Life is present, life is now;

It Is What It Is

It is what it is - because of me. I am not perfect, as you know, nobody is or ever will be. I have done wrong in the past and I admit it. I have been horrible for so long. I acknowledge it. I was the one who were afraid and I was the one who went away. I was really hot and cold, the one who were always unsure. But to be honest, I tried. I tried to make it worked. I put my effort into it and I put myself out there. You know I would never do that to anyone, but I did. I tried to put my trust in it. Again, you know I would not do that easy but I did it anyway. And I am thankful that I did. 

It is what it is - because of you. You tried beautifully hard and put everything in it. You are pretty much a perfection. You are everything everyone will ask for. I was just so very lucky that I crossed path with you and got the opportunity to spend my life with you. And nobody can stop it from happening, nobody can stop you. You find what the world can offer you and you know you can reach to the top of whatever it is you are aiming to. You find the place where you belong, you find a new home. You are growing - from a little piece of perfection to someone much much more bigger and powerful. To someone who knows where to belong and know what it is to be a perfection. And I am thankful that you did. 

It is what it is - because of us. Because we met, we talked and we interacted. Because we grow and we develop together. Because we figure out the world together; or at least we tried to figure it all out together. Because we share the moments and we share whatever it is we wanted to share. Because we made it that way and now we let it be this way.

It is what it is - because I hope. Because you hope. Because you are and because I am.

Heater Y U NO ON

Kembali ke gaya ngeblog jaman jaman baru mulai lagi ya untuk sesaat...

Gila ya dingin banget. Ga bohong. Tadi pagi udah enam derajat celsius aja loh! Dan udah mulai pake baju berlapis...padahal musim dingin masih 1 setengah bulan lagi *brb rebus diri di air panas*

Nah ya disini ada pemanas kan ceritanya. Tapi pemanasnya ga nyala kalo musim panas (go figure). Secara sekarang masih musim gugur, belom musim dingin (tapi dinginnya udah kaya musim dingin di kota lain -_-) jadi ini hall belom nyalain pemanas waktu Maret kemaren.

Tengah-tengah Maret udah mulai jatoh ke 20 awal tuh suhunya. Orang orang udah mulai minta dinyalain pemanasnya kan dan segala macem, tapi karena kalo nyalain pemanas itu berarti listrik (mungkin?) jadi ya ga bakal dinyalain lah ya kan ngirit gitu anak kuliahan........ *cek isi dompet*

Dijanjiinnya sih April awal tuh bakalan dinyalain pemanasnya. Semua orang seneng deh bahagia karena akhirnya bisa merasakan kehangatan seorang, eh maksudnya temperaturnya gitu yang hangat.

April datanglah sudah dan temperatur pun mulai kesandung kesandung ke belasan yang agak kebawah-bawah gitu lebih dingin dikit. Sekitar 16-17 kalo siang siang.. Awal-awalnya sih pada oke oke aja kan soalnya masih ada matahari segala macem. Masih anget dikit lah didalem juga suhunya.

Nah sekarang nih udah April tanggal puluhan, suhunya udah jatoh dan lecet jadi untuk naik lagi agak susah ya.. Kalo siang udah mulai 13an suhunya. Masih ada matahari sih, dan mataharinya masih terik (agak ngeselin sebenernya tapi gapapa lah anget :P) tapi anginnya yastagaa....... Gue disini naik sepeda bolak balik kampus, dan naik sepeda jadi berat, susah, dan dingin kaya es krim yang dilapis roti yang dijual uncle uncle di sekitaran Orchard yang enak banget itu yaampun kangen parah!! (maaf melipir)

Dan akhirnya pun saudara, besok pemanas akan dinyalakan. Haleluya!!!

Sebagai penutup:

Cantik ya? :)

P.S. Chatime akhirnya buka disini tapi udah ga musim panas.....mengapaaaaaaa 

It is Okay

I'm writing this down not because I want to be inspirational or anything. In my 19 years of life, I've been in the same situation for lots and lots of time and I always feel uncomfortable about this.

As you probably know, I'm in a family with loads of males. I have female cousins from my dad's side but they all live so far away that I don't get to see them very often.

Being the only girl in the family and having 5 other male cousins and an older brother is very very amazing. I am very grateful and I wouldn't wish for anything else to happen. Anyway... This pretty much makes me a lot like them, like a guy.

I really don't want to explain myself to find justice but in a nutshell, I'm not that girly. Yes, sure, I know and like stuffs about make up and fashion, but it stops there. I don't really dress up or plan my outfit just to go to school. I don't really wear make up (I still wear it sometimes). I don't have a ladylike curve/figure. And, I wear glasses.

All these were never a problem until I move away from home. I did not expect people's view about girls is that twisted...

It was really annoying when people ask me why I wear glasses and lecture me about how uncomfortable it is to wear glasses. Told me to lose the glasses and wear contacts and whatever. Excuse me. It's not like I devote my life and try hard to wear glasses. I wear it because I have to, my eyesight is not healthy thus I wear glasses. And I'm still scared to wear contacts, but I will try hard because I really have to in a few months from now.

I have scars on my face from acne. It is annoying when people say why not cover it up with make up, why don't you want to wear make up, come here and I'll make your face up, and I will not let you get away with no make up to this event. I don't know why I don't want to cover my scars up with make up. I wear make up when I feel like it. And sometimes I just don't think I need to hide my scars. It's not like I spray blood from my face, anyway.

I have a wavy/curly/thick hair. And let me tell you, it is annoying when people told me to straightened my hair, "you look better with straight hair", "why don't you straightened your hair", "let me straightened your hair" and all the stuffs. No, you don't know how I looked like with straight hair. No, I  don't want you to straightened my hair and I do not want to do it myself. This is my hair, I like it natural, get over it.

I'm a medium size and you would not believe how annoyed I am when people start to compare figures, telling me that I'm so lucky I'm skinny, I have small this small that (while sometimes the person who said this are smaller than I am). Despite this, I eat a lot. And I don't appreciate when people starts telling me about how much fat/sugar/carbohydrate are in the food that I eat, keep asking "why do you eat that? It's so unhealthy" and then coming back to the first comment about body figure. I have been called anorexic for many times and you have no idea how much I wanted to throw a rack full of shoes.

And (probably) you don't know how much it hurts when you hear those comments from people you know, people you love, or even people whom you just met.

Enough of me rambling, the point is I do not see anything wrong with wearing glasses, having a wavy/curly hair or acne scars on my face. It was never a problem, why is it a problem now? Do you judge people from their size? From their outfit and make up? NO.

In the end, nobody is perfect. If anything, I am totally unfit in all the ways you could ever think of. I don't do sports anymore. The only thing I do now is walk or cycle to and fro campus. And IT IS OKAY to have imperfections because every single person in this world have at least one. IT IS OKAY to wear comfortable clothes or not to wear make up or glasses as long as you look presentable as a human being (not like wearing underwear outside and all that crap).

I don't like to be a standard for anything. As long as you are healthy, you feel good about yourself, you fulfil your needs, and you are not bothering other people, IT IS OKAY.

The Pisces Thing

To be completely honest, I am a homebody. I am to the extreme of a homebody.

If I really don't have anything to do outside my house, I won't come out.
Now that I live in a room, I basically can count how many times I come out of my room or go to the ground floor.

Not that I'm antisocial, because that would mean that I dislike social interaction because I love meeting people and listening to them talking.
I probably am just have this okay feeling to be alone and I have to be on my own at least a few minutes per day. Probably it's the Pisces thing...

My friends and I were watching Bones the other day in my room and I remember Angela said this thing about Temperance; the only thing to get Brennan go out is to literally corner her and force her to go.
My friends were laughing because that is totally what they have to go through to get me out of my room.

I don't know how people sometimes think it's weird or unusual or it's a negative thing to have time on your own.
You know how sometimes you have a lot of things in your brain at once and the only thing to make it simpler is literally to sit and think through each of the thoughts one by one sorting them through?

Ah, never mind, it's probably the Pisces thing..

Reasons to Live (Pt. 1?)

1. Rainy season or just rain in general (especially if you live in tropical climate)
2. Sunshine!
3. Beautiful beaches, walking in the sand barefoot and feeling the sand and water..
4. Swimming pool or jacuzzi
5. Snow!
6. The color of autumn leaves
7. Being able to drink water when you're tired and very thirsty
8. Internet!! and all the magic in it :D
9. Parks
10. Reservoirs or any non-contaminated places

11. Music, music, music
12. New music from your favorite artist
13. Seeing your favorite band making new records after years of hiatus
14. Hearing/finding the right song at the right time
15. Being able to know the title of the song you heard once on the radio after years of effort in trying
16. Hearing the song that you want to hear in the radio without requesting to the radio dj
17. LIVE CONCERTS!!
18. Being able to meet people who love your favorite bands/artists as much as you do
19. Great TV series or movies
20. and its fandom!

21. Learning new things, no matter how simple it is
22. Making people smile, whatever you do
23. Having a quality time with yourself
24. Family!
25. Your best friends
26. Meeting new people
27. The smell of new books
28. Great books or a sequel of the book that you've waited for so long
29. Hugs, especially when you really need one
30. Sleep time or nap time

31. Being able to sing your heart out in the shower (or anywhere really)
32. Dancing around as silly as you can
33. Doing weird stuffs with your friends
34. FOOD!!!
35. MORE FOOD!!!
36. The warm fuzzy feeling when you drink hot tea/chocolate/coffee when it's cold
37. The brain freeze or cold and tingly feeling when you drink cold drinks when it's hot
38. Theme parks
39. Cartoons (and watching those that you've watched when you were a kid)
40. Laughing until you cry and smiles

(to be continued...)

Otaknya Lagi Berisik (Pt. 1?)

"Karena 'sekarang, selalu, dan sepanjang segala abad' sejatinya hanyalah ada dalam doa."

Berat, saudara-saudaraku. Hahahaha. Entah gimana ceritanya, waktu malem-malem lagi naik bis umum pulang kerumah, kalimat ini melintas sedemikian rupa di otak gue. Mungkin karena belakangan ini, orang-orang di sekeliling gue agak lebih sering bilang kalau mereka capek, entah batin atau fisik. Kebawa suasananya juga pada akhirnya, pikiran pun mulai pesimis-pesimis sedikit.

Apa sih di bumi ini yang abadi? Harta benda bisa berubah - bertambah, berkurang, bahkan hilang dalam sekejap mata karena banyak hal yang mungkin terjadi. Kesempurnaan fisik bisa diubah-ubah dengan kecanggihan teknologi zaman sekarang.

Nama dan prestasi... Mungkin bisa bertahan sangat lama, tapi ada dua kemungkinan. Antara ada yang pada akhirnya mengalahkan prestasi yang sudah tercatat atau memang orang-orang tidak pernah peduli untuk mengingat.

Pengetahuan? Bisa dibilang sih cukup abadi. Contohnya, tulisan-tulisan Plato masih dicetak, diterbitkan dan dibaca oleh banyak orang di tahun 2012 ini. Tapi pemikiran manusia berkembang, konsep-konsep akan selalu dipertanyakan dan besar kemungkinan konsepnya berubah. Kalau pengetahuan yang kita punya, bisa aja kan tiba-tiba hilang kalau kena penyakit? *amit-amit lari cari kayu buat diketok-ketok*

Sempet gue tanya sama temen waktu ngobrol. Karena kita cuma nyebutin hal-hal yang ngasal, ujung-ujungnya ada juga yang bilang hal yang satu ini - perasaan. Entah gimana ceritanya. Hahahaha. Begitu kita denger, langsung diem mendadak. Lalu, tawa-tawa bermuntahan dari semuanya. Memang terdengar klise (alasan kenapa harus dilanjut dengan tawa), tapi yang ini mirip dengan pengetahuan, bisa dibilang sih cukup abadi.

Tapi, ya itu tadi... Ujung-ujungnya semua hal itu penuh ketergantungan. Ada yang hartanya abadi, ada yang cuma sekedip mata. Ada yang cantik tampannya abadi, ada yang diubah-ubah. Ada yang pemikiran, prestasi dan pengetahuannya dikenang lama, ada yang sebentar. Ada yang perasaannya selalu sama, ada yang setiap detik berubah.

Terus, terus, apa iya kalau kejadian 'sekarang, selalu, dan sepanjang segala abad' berarti selama itu semuanya selalu bahagia? Hidup ada dua sisi, kan? Tapi orang kan maunya bahagia terus? Jadi, gimana? *tarik nafas*

Tadinya sih masih mau bahas banyak. Tapi masih kecil ah, takut. *indecisive-pisces-quality kicks in*

Ada yang kepikiran skenario 'sekarang, selalu, dan sepanjang segala abad' yang beneran kejadian?

Slogtember 27 - Contradiction

How many times have you contradict yourself?

For me personally, in my 18 years 6 months of existence, the answer would be a lot, a lot of times. I might do it right now as I’m writing this. It’s not that I already have a fixed ideals and principles about life. My view is still changing constantly almost everyday of my life. One day I would say that I would not sleep to late at night but the other day I would say just live in the moment and screw that. How about you? Maybe, never?

Is it wrong to contradict yourself?

Well, I really don’t know. People do it, we all do it. If you say you have never ever contradict yourself in any matter in you life, I can say that you’re lying. I might be right as well about that. Just think about how many promises you have made to your parents? How many of them you did not break? Or maybe the promises you made to your ex(es). Nah, I won’t start on that.

Some people might say because everyone does it then it’s okay to do it. It’s a common practice, a public secret. What the hell is that anyway? Is it true when people do it almost every time then it becomes the right thing to do? No. Just because so many people kill each other nowadays doesn’t make the act of killing other human being a right thing to do. It still is wrong. But is this wrong? Coming back to my first sentence, I don’t know because I do it too sometimes.

Why do we do it?

We? Okay. If you think you have never contradict yourself or your own promises, principles or sayings, with all due respect, please go away and don’t read this.

Oh reasons, fun. We could go on forever listing all the reasons we can come up with. Probably, because we want to know what happen on the other side? Curiosity. We want to know what would happen. We want to answer all what ifs that come up every night before we go to sleep. Maybe it’s because we want to change the principles in the first place and change the way you live (despite being good or bad, that’s not my concern anyway). In the end, curiosity kills the cat. Well, you’re not a cat so nyan that. Sure…

Maybe it’s because you want to comfort yourself or maybe you want to comfort other people. You don’t want to hurt them so you lie to yourself. Or you don't want to hurt yourself so you lie to people. Who wins?

Maybe… Well there will be a lot of maybes that I can’t write one by one but I’m sure people have their own reasons to justify whatever it is they decide to do.

So?

Everything depends on you and whatever you decide. Whatever your ideal is. It’s your decision; it’s your life. It’s not wrong but no one has ever said it is right. I’m still figuring things out. Isn’t that the reason why we live?

Slogtember 22 - Self

Advertisements are so provocative. Unconsciously, they change they way people see the world, the way people think and in the end they always win the mind-battle. They can also affect the society in every single way possible.

I’m home right now. Since I don’t have much to do, I watch TV majority of the time for the past 2 days. I can’t help but to look at the TV ads too (and there are loadssss of them).

As a teenager, there are certain types of ads that catch my attention. One is beauty stuff and another is ad of products targeted to teenage girls or women. And I have some examples too.

One of the ads that I hate the most is the whitening beauty product ads. I hate how the ads is trying so hard to set people’s mind to think that beauty is white skin. They seriously have to stop this. I mean this is Indonesia. If you’re not half something else or you’re the majority of Indonesian, you will have brown skin. That’s just the way it is. It is genetic and it’s going to happen, you’re going to have it. 

So, why do the advertisements trying so hard to sell “white skin”? It bugs me that they’re trying so often to tell people that white skin is the thing and brown skin is so last year? Is it because brown skin is so mainstream? I mean look at foreigners trying so hard to tan their skin to make it looks brown. They even have a machine that exposes their skin directly to the UV even though it is super dangerous. And here we are, thinking that white skin is the “thing” and trying so hard to make our skin looks so white and deleting our identity (kind of).

The same thing goes to the slimming products. There are so many advertisements about slimming products from milk, supplement, medicine and so on. They’re trying to make people think that beauty is slim, or to the extreme end, skinny.  Not trying to be hypocrite, I don’t always feel happy about the way I look. But whenever I think about it, at the same time I realize there are only very few girls who have the skinny figures. That’s not me. And that’s not how most girls’ bodies are. So many people strive to be skinny and hating themselves from young age. That’s NOT healthy both physically and mentally. There are so many beautiful people and talented people who are not skinny and they are successful and in the end the society thinks that they are pretty. And yes, I agree it’s not easy to not to feel self-conscious when the media is pestering us with the image of this perfect skinny white-skinned girl. But you’ve got to try to rise above the stereotypes.

The people around you also contribute on how you think, consciously and unconsciously. I have been in that situation. I’ve never had friends who talks about make up or fashion or anything related to beauty at home. My friends are guys or girls who behave like guys. When I moved away, girls are girls. They talk about fashion, beauty, make up, and clothes (amongst other things too you know, not saying this is a negative thing). More than just talking about it, they actually do something about it. For the first time ever I have people around me feeling self-conscious about their eyebrows and do stuffs like plucking, waxing or threading. Meanwhile, I’m here standing not knowing which kind of eyebrow is ugly and which one is good. Shame on me, right?

On the bottom line, I’m not saying if you’re skinny, white-skinned or if you care about how you look like is wrong. I don’t think that way. It is very good to take care and look after your self. But please do not hate yourself if you are not the same as those girls on TV or magazine. Just make sure that you are healthy and happy. Love yourself the way you are because if you are doing things the right way, you’ll hopefully feel beautiful. I’m trying to and I’m sure lots of other girls are doing the same thing too J