Posture- What You Say Without Actually Saying Anything

You can tell a lot about a person’s self image as they walk down the hall past you.  Look at how they hold themselves, how they walk and how fast, where their eyes go when you get close.

Do they hunch their shoulders and stare at the floor?  Do they clutch their books to their chest and increase their pace as people pass them.  Do they veer as far to the other side of the hall as far as they can go without falling through an open door.

I was walking down the Medical hall to my next class and a boy in a sweater vest nearly ran into a trophy case.  Not even three minutes later a girl clutched her books to her coat and watched her feet steep one in front of the other.  

My first thought was I hadn’t put on any deodorant, or I’d forgotten to shower.  Maybe I’d wiped my nose and smeared snot all across my face. 

None of those seemed likely.

This got me thinking.  Why do people have lack of self-confidence in the first place?  

I mean if you think about it realistically… None of us look the same.  So what’s the point in worrying about it? 

No one person looks alike, so why do we whine and complain about everything that’s wrong with us when A) we can’t do anything about it and B) we can’t physically make ourselves all look the same, so no matter what “flaws” you have, you will always in one way or another look and act differently than someone else.

I bet you if you asked someone to come up with ten things they hate about themselves it would take them thirty seconds to point at everything they hate on their body.  If you asked them to tell you ten good things about themselves, they’d veer away from physical aspects and list off their talents or abilities instead.

Why can’t people look someone straight in the eye and say hey what’s up? This is how I decided to dress this morning and if you don’t like it, well, quite frankly my dear, I just don’t give a damn. 

I used to be vain about my looks.  I used to spend hours and hours on my hair, make-up, outfits...  I’d stand in front of the mirror with magazines in front of me, trying to get myself as close to the girl in the picture as I could get.   What was the point of that?  I was never going to look exactly like her. We  didn’t look the same naturally much less with ten gallons of eyes shadow weighing down our lids.

So stand-up straight, walk comfortably in your own shoes.  Meet people’s eyes and avoid injury from unexpected open doorways or glass cases.  Because you look stupid when you walk as if your afraid of yourself.  If you don’t have a problem with you, no one else will either.  You might as well respect and see the beauty in your own features and personality.  If you don’t like you… how can you expect anyone else too?

Just a thought.