A New, Deep Cut

I was in DC last week visiting my parents and my mom cut my hair. It’s almost as short as it was in middle/high school. I was teased about it then so I was somewhat nervous about the reaction I would get when I returned home, but I shouldn’t have been worried at all. My husband thinks it’s cute and the friends that have seen my hair think it looks good on me, or maybe I have nice friends who tell me what I want to hear. #bestfriendseverrrr

(Warning: Deep topic up ahead.)

So on the subject of appearance, about 2 weeks ago, I was on the unfortunate end of a racist insult about my eyes. I ended up not saying anything half out of shock and the other half out of fear that I wouldn’t be able to control my anger. (I feel like I have a quick temper, but I don’t like being angry and I don’t want to hurt people just because I got hurt.) So I’ve learned to keep my mouth shut when I’ve been hurt and that’s exactly what I did… Now I feel like I failed to protect others from this mean, ignorant woman. Her words and my inaction cut me deep.

However, I was able to talk with some amazing women-friends about the experience and I got solid perspectives out of it. Despite how great it would feel at the moment, me yelling at the lady (who was working mind you) wouldn’t have made the world a better place, she might’ve become even more bitter and would’ve kept throwing insults out of spite.

So now I know what to do the next time it happens. I’m going to get over the shock, kindly let the person know that it’s not okay to say something like that, get an apology, and be on my way. I’m just glad it was me instead of someone else. It sucks, but I would’ve lost my mind if it were to happen to one of my friends.

For me to remember:

I love my hair. I love my eyes. Stand up for yourself and others. Haters gonna hate so in the words of Taylor Swift’s extremely catchy song that I can’t stop listening to, “Shake It Off” 🙂