I wrote this a few weeks ago, and realized that it belonged here:

I wrote this a while ago... I was writing it for this girl in my school, but I'm beginning to realize it's me. I am also beginning to realize that it's untrue... I know who I am. I might not have when i wrote this, but that's the wisdom that distance bestows. Anyway, I think it belongs here. Have faith that this will happen to you as well.

I believe in beauty. Not the conventional beauty everyone thinks of, but the inner beauty that we all posses. I also believe that the thing which makes our beauty visible is our creativity.

                I believe that you cannot survive without creativity. There have been so many times I have relied on mine to get me through the day, to get me through my life.  My creative energy is the only reason why I am still here now.

Life is so much bigger than beauty.  There are so many horrible moments in life - heartbreak, pain, loneliness, betrayal.  And yet, these too are part of life.  They are beautiful in their own way, but it is not the conventional type of beauty.  Heartbreak is beautiful because it is the moment when you see a person for who they truly are to you.  Pain is beautiful because it makes you more invincible later on.  You learn from pain like you learn from nothing else.  Loneliness is beautiful because of the things you come up with to counter it.  That creation, in itself, is beauty.  Betrayal is hard to see as beautiful, but it shows a stripped-down version of your relationship with the person.  Betrayal is the moment before you break free of a person or an idea that hasn't been serving you well. 

What if you break your own heart, hurt yourself, isolate yourself, and betray yourself?  This is not beautiful, no matter how it looks to the rest of the world.  Beauty is not glossy or airbrushed, it is a person who does not do these things to him or herself.  Beauty is a person intact of self-harassment.  

"What Beauty Is To Me"

My family and I were making a tour of Canadian Universities.  One night, we took a walk around town, and I saw a middle-aged woman with thinning hair, few teeth, and a sign which read, "Homeless and hungry... every little bit helps... God bless you." As I was stepping off the curb to cross the street and look at the castle on the other side, I met her eyes and instantly wanted to cry.  If you had seen her face, you might understand the pain and sadness and despair which lurked in her eyes. 
And yet, it wasn't the sadness which made me turn to my mother once we crossed the street ( I had absolutely no money on me at the time, but she had her purse with her) and beg for money to give the homeless woman.  What made me need to help her was the honesty and hope I saw, and the way she carried herself with a certain air of dignity even though she was asking for help in the most extreme way.  Very few people can boast those three details in themselves. 
I re-crossed the street, meeting her hobbling steps as she walked unsteadily towards me, and pressed the two-dollar Canadian coin into her open hand. 
Her face would have been worth my life.  She was so kind and grateful, repeating over and over, "Thank you" and "It will come back to you a million times over." But I didn't want anything back.  I just wished I could have done more for her. 
I remember thanking her, and woundering why I was thanking her for asking for money.  Now I realize that I was thanking her for the insight to another life.  She'd let me into hers, for a glimpse of her world, and opened my eyes in the process.  
 I will never again complain about the size of my butt, or my shortage of friends, because I have plenty of food, and home, a family, and a few friends I hold dear to my heart and am grateful for everyday. 
What does all this have to do with beauty?  The story was about a person, isn't it? The honesty of the woman was what drew me to help her the tiny bit I could, and her bravery to ask for help - one of the hardest things to say - brought her what she asked for, from me and hopefully enough others to make a difference in her life, to maybe make it a little bit easier.   Her kindess and gratitude in recieving the gift convinced me I had done the right thing (like i needed convincing!), not to mention the creation of the poster in the first place. 
Creation is a beautiful thing.  Creation can make any situation better, anything from slight depression to getting money for food.  The most beautiful people are those who create something to help change the world, make its people more understanding and caring, kind and happy. 
But creation is nothing without honesty (people can tell if you're fake, it looses the effect it was meant to have), bravery (a creation cannot be expected to change the world unless it sees the world, to be ridiculed or praised), gratitude (if you don't honor your gift for creating a certain thing or in a particular medium, it disappears), and kindness (how will you change the world for the better if what you create doesn't inspire kindness and understanding in people?). 
Be as inspiring as possible to as many people as you can, promote the "live and let live" policy, seek out the beauty in the people who surround you, be kind and genuine, and you are the most beautiful person in the world.