Hello everyone! I just wanted to talk about a topic extremely important to me. I know usually don't do this but let's start now. I think this topic is really relevant to our lives in the 21st century. Weight.
Because I had a few minutes to read yesterday, I read the Devil Wears Prada. It's a great read and a fantastic break from Montaigne's essay. While reading, I stumbled upon a line that made me feel unhappy. If you haven't read it, it's basically about a very unfashionable girl who gets stuck at Runway, a incredibly demanding fashion magazine. The girl is a personal assistant to one of the world's greatest editor and crazy woman. Andrea is unknowingly changing along the way and blah blah blah, I'm not telling you. In this scene, Andrea is being yelled at once more by her boss for something totally ludicrous. She goes home and ponders about her boss and finally decides that her boss yells at everyone in the fashion industry and keeps them busy at nonsensical jobs in order to get rid of their appetite. At about midnight, I decided to watch one of the free movies on Youtube. There are a lot of decent ones so I recommend that for anyone who is bored. I was watching Bridesmaids Revenge, an ABC Family movie with Raven Symone. The mean girl's mom is also really mean and in the movie, Raven's characters asks why the mom doesn't just change the size of dress rather than the bridesmaids. This scene also reminded me of Voltaire's satire of a piece called Candide. Candide, the main character, assumes that feet are made to fit the stocking.
Those are all some dramatizations of an ongoing problem with weight and personal image. I used to be really unhappy with my weight too. I was on the chubby side ever since 6th grade. Korea is a wonderful country but a very self conscience country. It was hard going in the summer and seeing that I was so inadequate compared to all the gorgeous people there. Last summer, I took a precalc course at a community college because of complicated reasons (my parents forced me). I lost 6 pounds somehow. It was mostly because I woke up late and ate a brunch. Dinner was moved early since my class started at 6 and I was too exhausted to eat anything when I came home. Then I went to Korea and all that weight that I had lost was back, instantly. When I came back I had actually gained a total of 8 pounds... I had an unhappy trip all around last year. This year was sort of different. I did lose weight before I left because I guess it is a summer thing. I don't exercise or anything. I just sit down and eat little and study. I managed to only gain 2 pounds this trip and that was probably because of the summer camp. The summer camp was exhausting and the weather was just too hot for my body to feel hungry. But every night, all of our church members would gorge on ice cream. That's basically the calories and nutrition I lived off for a week. I always ate breakfast though, the heat syndrome would start at lunch.
Since I was skinner during my trip, the attitude that people gave me was so different. I had a good trip but it's not a good thing that Korean society is that self conscience. It's built upon bettering yourself by making someone else feel inadequate. It's sort of can't be helped either because there are so many people in Korea and not enough good, respectable jobs. Where you went to college determines pretty much your whole life and you spend your childhood and high school years preparing for college. Every little thing becomes a competition. In schools, they number kids by height and that's the order of attendance. So for an example, in the US all the attendance lists are in alphabetical order. Kids get stressed by things they shouldn't be stressed abut-- like their height. Being number 1 is not a good thing there. There are a lot of internal issues in Korea and I, and everyone else, know that they're bad but there's not a good solution as of right now.
It's extremely difficult to be happy with what you have when someone has something better. Like grades for example. It's never about your personal achievement but it's always geared towards how good you are compared to other people. The best thing to do is forget that other people exist. Being obese is not healthy but neither is being a size super 000000. I don't agree with the idea of beauty being that thin. Healthy people who are happy with their weight are going to have a better sense of security in their daily lives.
As of now, I feel content with my weight. I don't feel sad or angry when looking at myself in the mirror anymore. I'm not obsessed over every calorie. Instead I've found that I can do other things in the time where I would usually calculate how many calories I've eaten and how many I should be eating to lose either, like blog. It's hard, definitely, but I promise that you and every single person would lead happier lives if they stopped stressing about being size 0. Happiness does come from within and you can start being happy by loving yourself.
xx
I hope you enjoyed my little stance of weight. I just think it's such a big problem nowadays and used to be for me too. We are surrounded by gorgeous people but are they healthy? Probably not.
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