6 Things that happen when you have a birthmark on your face

6 Things that happen when you have a birthmark on your face

(A little ditty on self-acceptance)

As most of you know (It’s on my face, not very avoidable) I was born with an oval birthmark just smaller than the size of a dime beside my right eye. For most of my preteen years this spot was the bane of my awkward existence and it’s removal was on the forefront of my battle against my parent’s consistent “Not Happening”. To this day I cannot begin to count the amount hours my obsession with relenting the unsightly smudge stole from my adolescence. Add in the happenstance of my thirteenth year of life coinciding with the release of Austin Powers: Goldmember the word mole still makes me cringe. Guaca-mole aside, as I’ve gotten older the tarnish still rests front and center but it’s stopped taking up so much of my of time and finally come to it’s resting place as Birthmark: it exists.

Nothing new here but the influx of articles with different variations of “Love Yourself” and “How to Make Him/Her Want You” have multiplied in tandem and seem to take up every grocery store waiting line and from time to time I’ve been guilty of late night perusing of pages that lead from story to story, each a slightly different version of the one before. Self loathing and vanity is a tightrope we’ve placed in front of ourselves and it seems self improvement has been etched out as the middle ground. From Rene Zelwegger’s change in face taking up headlines to entire talk shows revolving around trying to spot whose had work done but sticking with the mantra of “If you are going to do it, make sure it’s for you.”

Not too long ago a photographer asked me “What do you physically like about yourself?” and when it was difficult for me to answer he asked “Well what don’t you like and we can go from there.” These two questions stuck in my mind for days. Why was it so hard to answer what I liked about myself? Take some time to ask yourself these questions and think about your answers. Every person I’ve mentioned this to in the last few months has had immediately been able to supply a list of their bodily traits they consider undesirable but have taken a moment when posed with the question of their likable physical features. This makes me so sad and I know I responded in the same way but it doesn’t make it okay.

Last night at work someone mentioned my birthmark and nowadays it hardly crosses my mind but it got me thinking about what a nifty little oddity it is and some of the quirks that come along as part of the package.

6 Things That Happen When You Have a Birthmark on Your Face:

1. You are a superhero/magician to the kids you baby sit when the “dirt on your face” doesn’t rub off.

2. When walking through rough neighborhoods your ‘face tat” oftentimes get automatic street cred and comments likes “Damn girl, I got mad respect for that ink” …so there’s that.

3. Your unique features are a great way to deter you from a life of crime. “It was the other girl with a spot on her face officer” isn’t exactly a winning argument.

4. Draw legs on it and you have a spider ON YOUR FACE: automatic Halloween Costume…..Why on earth did it take me twenty three years to do this?!?!?

5. It acts as a forcefield for complete assholes that for some reason exist late at night or in packs that always seem to talk just loud enough for you to hear “No man, I just couldn’t do it, moles freak me out.”

6. Literally absolutely nothing. It’s a birthmark, mole, angel spot or whatever the hell else you want to call it. It’s there and so are you. You don’t have to love it but you also don’t have to hate it. You are unique like every single other human on this planet.

While ninety nine percent of you don’t have birthmarks on your lovely faces I’m sure there are mental lists of freckles, dimples, hair too curly or too straight, big butts and little breasts and the thousand other traits we nitpick about ourselves that, in reality, aren’t that bad. Take what you’ve got, rock it and remember:

Our bodies are essentially fleshy vehicles that take us from A to B while protecting our thinking brains and connect us to people we love and then help produce teeny tiny (much cuter) versions of ourselves that will get bigger and do it all again…pretty amazing right?!

#love #poetry #artofleaving