Am I Pretty Enough? I thought so.
I haven’t lived life looking into the mirror much — usually just a passing glance now and then and then a more careful study when I’m trying on clothing to see what fits well together. That’s when I use the full-length mirror. As I mostly don’t wear any makeup only occasionally when I’m out on a dinner date when I paint my lips with my natural glittering gloss, I don’t see my face close up. I’m not leaning against the medicine cabinet mirror or a magnifier and carefully lining my eyes and extending my lashes with makeup.
Since the pandemic, like everyone else, I have found myself staring into a computer screen looking at others and myself during a Zoom meeting. What I didn’t see for years is now a full-frontal view. My crepey neck — I had no idea I even had one, never mind how bad it is — my lined forehead, my growing jowls and my hooded eyes confront me in each Zoom event. I don’t dare take off my huge Parisian spectacles as they do a fairly decent job of hiding my aging eyes, which now are so folded that the tears are leaking out of the sides creating a crustiness I find myself constantly wiping off.
I never considered any sort of cosmetic treatments including surgery, injections and laser before and quite honestly am still not. Firstly, I’m terrified of letting anyone do anything to my face. After all, I fought off my mother for decades as she campaigned…
