Real Beauty

She is so much more than just beautiful.

Our notion of beauty derives from standing out. In any given society, in any given country, most people have a certain look, derived from its people's gene pool -this theory obviously excludes largely cosmopolitan populations such as the populations of New York or Dubai or London. Usually each country has certain defining genetic characteristics regarding height, build, eye color, hair color, etc. We usually view a person as beautiful or attractive when they stand out from the group. Again, this is not always the case. This is not to claim that ONLY people who look different are attractive, and other people can suck it. It is just an observation... for example, someone with a tan isn't looked at twice in Argentina, while in Norway they would be considered very attractive. That doesn't mean that all white people living in Norway are considered ugly scum unfit for love and compassion, but odds are that a tanned person is more likely to be attractive to Norwegians than just another white Norwegian. Perhaps a radical view, but one which I've come to notice in most countries I have visited. Similarly, in most of the Arab world, being white is usually synonymous with being beautiful, due to the fact that being white is not very common.

Due to that unfortunate fact, some Egyptians would not call her beautiful. She's cute, certainly (they would say) but she looks so "normal". Ordinary. One of a million- or rather, one of 90 million. Since it would take a very long time to track down each idiot who says that and punch them, I'm going to do it here in writing instead. You see, you ignorant, pathetic, equally-tanned, hypocritical excuses for Egyptian males (whose taste I share, shamefully), it takes much more than a tan to make a girl "ordinary". We live in Egypt, we're all tanned. If you don't get tanned, you die of skin cancer; it's an evolutionary mechanism. If anything, from a Darwinian point of view, your going for a white girl decreases your offsprings' chances of survival and hence -from a purely evolutionary standpoint- natural selection is gonna have some fun with you and yours.

I can't expect you to see beyond your veil of koshary-fuelled ignorance and notice how beautiful her eyes are. No, they don't have to be wide blue eyes. They're almond shaped  brown eyes, juuuuuust  the right shade to make you crave something chocolaty. Highly intelligent eyes, which seem to have the ability to figure you out and see right through you within five minutes of meeting you. I can't expect you to appreciate how playfully seductive she is when she plays around with her ringlets of wavy, brown hair, twirling it further and further into tighter curls that spring bouncily back to their original artful tumble; unpretentious and fun and low-maintenance while still managing to look elegant. I can't expect you to see how even her "common" tanned, dark skin is unblemished, smooth and soft as velvet. But most of all, I can't expect you to notice her smile, o clueless unworthy Egyptian male idiot. When she smiles, her whole face smiles. You can tell, because she gets that twinkle in her eyes and her right cheek twitches slightly as her lips part to show a pristine set of gleaming, perfect teeth -in stark contrast to her dark complexion- complimenting the glint in her eyes and compounding the effect to make you inwardly moan because any time now, she is going to stop smiling and you will fall back in the terrible, dark abyss where you dwelled before she started smiling.

But as I said before, she is so much more than just beautiful. And far from being "unremarkable", she is -no matter how you look at it- extraordinary.

When I look at her, I see a burning passion for what she does. In her eyes, I see more than pretty, smiling, intelligent eyes; I see a fiery will and determination burning as bright as any star, announcing to the world that "I am here and I am going to succeed". I see a constant need for self-improvement. I see a strong, assertive character that manifests itself in a nonthreatening way that instead of antagonizes other assertive personalities, manages to win them over to her side willingly, where they are glad to cooperate as peers and equals. I see a very helpful person who will go to extreme lengths to lend a hand to whoever needs it, but still makes sure not to be taken for granted. I see a girl with all the tools to succeed in life, who does whatever it takes to get things done, yet still manages to make it look effortless and laugh about it. I see an intellect that is so obviously a match for my own, which in all modesty is not a common occurrence, yet she never comes across as arrogant... and while we're at it, her laugh is extremely contagious and her sense of humor is so well-developed that I can honestly say that she is one of literally four girls I know who can actually make me laugh.

Every time I see her, she grows more and more beautiful in my eyes. And every time, my respect for her grows. She is not one of 90 million Egyptians- she is one IN 90 million Egyptians.

Conventional beauty will fade, but what she has is infinitely more enduring.

So you see, my visually (and mentally) impaired Egyptian friend, beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder.

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I know several girls who are going to read this post and think it's about them, and I find it very ironic that you're probably not gonna read it. But maybe one day I'll show it to you, and you'll know I meant every word I said.

22/10/2014 Edit: No, I will never show you this post now. For both our sakes.