Little eyes

(Baonghean) - In recent days, my friends on Facebook have been buzzing about the results of the beauty pageant. I wasn't too concerned, because there are now so many beauty queens popping up like mushrooms after the rain. There are about ten beauty contests every year; where do all these beautiful women come from? Scrolling through the articles my friends cited, I only noticed that the new Miss Vietnam was born in 1996, meaning she's only a first-year university student. Thinking back to the uproar and criticisms from the online community these past few days, I wondered if they've been too malicious?

I remember back in high school, I sat next to a girl nicknamed the "barrel" of the class. She was a good student, easygoing, kind, and generally had nothing to complain about. Her only "fault" was that she wasn't slim, so she naturally became the class's "target"—meaning she was the target of our teasing. She seemed used to being teased, so every time we yelled, "Hey, walk a little quieter, you're cracking the wall!", she'd just smile and not react. One time, I accidentally read her diary, which she'd left in her desk drawer, and it said she had a crush on someone. It was me! A 16-year-old boy's mind couldn't think straight, so I immediately told my friends. One person told ten, ten told a hundred, and before long the whole class knew, and they all started shipping us two. I got so angry that I blurted out in class, "Who would like girls' clothes that are twice as heavy as boys'?" I thought it would just be another teasing remark, but she burst into tears and missed several days of school. After that, she asked the teacher to change her seat and didn't speak to me again until the end of high school.

Looking back, I still think I was so foolish. But basically, I didn't mean any harm; I was just being teased so much that I blurted out something. Ten years later, when we met again at a class reunion, that same friend told me: "I was so angry with you back then. I felt so hurt and thought: Is it wrong to have an unattractive appearance? Why do they only focus on my flaws? Everyone is born different; you can't change them just because you want to. Only when you know and have the ability to improve yourself but still don't do it is that truly đáng chê (worthy of criticism)!" Today, reading those comments about the beauty queen, it's like seeing myself and my classmate from back then. But as I've grown up, I've understood that appearance is the most pointless topic we can discuss about a person. Because if we don't open our hearts to look at the values ​​deep within them, we'll simply remain children who never grow up, viewing life superficially and shallowly.

Speaking of the beauty queen, her background is impeccable, without any scandals. She's a former student of a nationally renowned specialized high school and a current student at a prestigious university. I think that's enough to confirm that she's not unattractive. When we want to understand, love, and respect someone, we'll inevitably look beyond outward beauty, which is more for pleasing the eye than warming the soul. Isn't it time we grew up and opened our eyes and hearts, instead of judging the people and things around us with such a narrow perspective?

Hai Trieu