57. ARE BEAUTY AND PHYSICAL APPEARANCE OVERVALUED OR ARE THEY REALLY SO IMPORTANT TO BE SUCCESSFUL IN LIFE ? , by SPA (Bachillerato 2)

MY SONG:  Linking Park - Lost in the Echo

We are all extremely used to seeing TV advertisements, films, series and even reality shows in which the people who appear are physically idyllic. However, is this a realistic representation of the world? Are we really all perfect?

My philosophy teacher asked us an interesting question last Wednesday. He told us to imagine that we were students who were organizing everything in order to start studying in a different city. Of course, we needed to look for a place to sleep and study, and there were several people offering us to live with them: one of them was a baker, with a little flat, 25 years old and two dogs; the second one was a hard-core music singer, with lots of tattoos and piercings; and the third one was a young student who was about to get a degree in physics, who was blond and who loved pop music. Just after having presented us our possible hosts, a fair amount of the people in the class rushed to say: ‘I would definitely choose the third one’. Nevertheless, they had almost the same information from all the hosts, so why would they have chosen the third? How did they know that he was not a serial killer? They did not know it, but they instinctively chose him.

Believe it or not, a part of you would have told you to choose the young physicist. We are all conditioned to the physical appearance of the people who surround us, and that is something inevitable.

The question is: is physical appearance that important to be successful in life? The answer, from my point of view, is: sometimes. If you apply for a job as an office worker, someone with a better CV than you will probably get the job. But if you apply for a shop assistant work in a ‘Zara’ store, even if you have cured 300 diseases and discovered three new elements, a handsome 1’90 meters tall ex-rugby player will get that job. Yes, even if he does not know how to do up his own shoes.

All in all, I believe that having a good physical appearance is a clear advantage in life, but if you work hard and never give up on your dreams, you will get as far as you desire, even if you are 1’60 meters tall and the biggest portion of your body mass is located in your massive nose or in your huge ears.

                                                             By SPA