To Be The Prettiest

Typed on 9/20/2010


I'm reading an anthology entitled Twice Told. The guy that came up with the idea is a professional illustrator. He decided that he spent all of his time artistically interpreting other people's stories, so why shouldn't it work both ways? He drew 9 pictures, and then had 18 authors write a story about one of them. It's very cool.


As of now, I'm joining my school's Debate Team. I'll probably go for the "Interpretation" category which is basically solo acting without costumes or props or anything. It's very adamant in the guidelines that the piece of literature I'm "interpreting" must be a printed and published work. 


WELL GUESS WHAT. 


I HAVE A PRINTED AND PUBLISHED WORK. It's not for sale (although I'm working on that...in theory), but it is printed, and it is published through a valid publisher (yes, it's a vanity publisher, and no, I'm not proud of that, but in this case it's extremely convenient), so I'm perfectly allowed to interpret one of my own poems. I want to do the edited version of "In the Maelstrom" which *goes to check* I thought I posted but apparently deleted. Sorry.


Maybe it'd be better for me to do something else. But I have so little experience in acting that I want to focus on that, instead of the "interpreting" part.


On to the English journal.


"If you could be the prettiest/handsomest in the world, what would you look like?"


Hey, a journal where I'm expected to be vain. Fun.


If I were to truly be the prettiest in the world, I'd have some sort of glamour (for those of you who aren't familiar with fantasy terms, that's a magical disguise) that made everyone see their own definition of beauty when they looked at me. When it comes to pictures/video, I guess it'd be sort of a blur and people would come away with only a vague idea of what they'd actually seen.


I'd hate that- to look like everyone's ideal. For one thing, I'd mostly be perceived as just a body and not a mind. Not only that, but I'd lose my physical identity, and while yes, the inside is more important than the outside, that doesn't mean that the outside isn't important too (case point: eating healthy and exercising is good for you). If I look like someone different to everyone...who am I?


Besides, being the prettiest in the world would draw attention (and I'm usually averse to attention in general) to the aspects of me I least want attention drawn to. If I'm going to be well-known, I want it to be for my writing. Not my appearance.
I'm not saying there isn't anything I'd like the change about my appearance, but I don't want to be the best.