The only way to see beauty is to be blind, this I believe.
Yes, it is an oxymoron, but it is the truth. We are stuck in a world where most people see you for what you look like or how much money you make, but not blind people, to them looks mean nothing, they don’t matter. They see inside you to find who you really are, to find your true colors.
No, I am not blind, but I was lucky enough to experience for a day what it would be like if I was, for a project in humanities about beauty. “It will be easy,” I said, “I’ve been able too see for eighteen years. How hard could it be?” Then the blind fold was placed around my head covering my eyes. It must have been ten minutes or so before I couldn’t stand it. I hated not being able to see, what I thought I knew was wrong. I couldn’t walk up the stairs, I couldn’t walk in a straight line, and I couldn’t even go to the restroom without help or without bumping into something and tripping myself. I gave gad my vision for eighteen years and I cant even do simple tasks blind for one day.
But, what really shocked me is that people who have been blind for their whole life or most of their life can be so independent, knowledgeable, and familiar about where things are and to be able to maneuver as if they had sight.
With my experience I have figured out they would never be able to do that unless they had amazing, trustworthy friends. Most of my friends were very patient and gentle while helping me out with obstacles that came my way, but then there are some, some that were my best friends, the ones I thought I could trust the most that ran me into things on purpose, pushed me around and into walls, and tried to trip me. They did all that just because they thought it was funny. My friend Zach even left me when I was half-way up the stairs. Right about then I thought people in general were mean and horrible, but it was right then when a hand reached out and grabbed my arm and led me up the stairs. The voice did not sound familiar to me at all. “Who is this?” I asked, “Oh my name is Sarah,” she answered. The name clicked in my head and it stunned me. I would have never talked to this girl before. This was happening all day people I didn’t even know were going out of their way to help me to class. It was weird not being able to see who I was talking to because we are so used to judging people by their looks when all I had was how they treated me. There was no ugly or pretty, cool or loser, there was just nice and mean and that’s what is on the inside, our true colors.
I can’t believe that people can be around something or someone for so long and still not know them. Just like friends and stairs it doesn’t matter how much time we have spent with them or been with them, all that matters is how much time you have spent getting to know them and seeing who they really are, because a time will come where you are blinded and you may find out you don’t know them at all or maybe they weren’t the person you thought they were. You will trip and fall, get hurt; you will be abandoned when you are most vulnerable. And to stop that from ever happening all we have to do is just stop and look, but don’t look at them, look inside them. Blind yourself from everything except how they are going to treat you and by doing that you can find the true beauty in people not just our made up commercial beauty that is portrayed on TV and in magazines.