"You are becoming beautiful. You have a boyfriend?" was the comment from the lady who waxes my eyebrows every two weeks. I thought I was beautiful even when I was wearing a size 20. This phenomenon of people reacting differently towards me was unexpected.
"Oh my, I almost didn't recognize you. You've lost weight...haven't you?"
These types of comments usually arrive with strange looks from people I have known for years who haven't seen me for a while.
In the past year I have lost about about 40 pounds and now my old acquaintances seem to view me as a different person despite the fact that I am the same person on the inside. I expected an initial surprise reaction but not the strange looks and the stiff hugs they give as if I am a stranger. Half of the time I'm not even thinking about the weight loss. After all it happened gradually and I see myself on a daily basis so when someone mentions it I just nod and smile politely preferring not to discuss it further. After all, it's not as if I am now a svelte size 6. I am still sporting plus sizes which is partially why I can't grasp their reactions to me.
I've had a couple of supposed friends turn on me after I lost the weight. I can only attribute this to their own insecurities. I've always been a physically beautiful person and taken care of my appearance but now that I am a few sizes smaller I am treated like a different person. It is very disconcerting because I don't know who my true friends are. I tend to lean more towards the individuals who don't make my weight an issue. My eyes have been opened to the people I associated with who only saw me as an overweight woman rather than as a friend. I wonder if they only befriended me because they felt it was safe or because they felt sorry for me because I was "fat".
Perhaps one day we can begin to view individuals as simply people and look beyond their outer appearances to their spirit within. We might be able to see beyond someone's weight, skin conditions, handicaps and other flaws to see their beauty existing within. To quote singer India.Arie from her hit song "Video", "I know my creator didn't make no mistakes on me....I learned to love myself unconditionally."
