Basekamp Laundry Mountain

Beauty

I keep looking at this online photo of a friend. It keeps coming across my newsfeed as people comment on it. I knew her as a child. We went to school together, her Mom coached a Little League team. I went to few parties as a kid but I remember the pool at her house- I was invited there even though it was my sister & brother who were on her Mom’s baseball team.

I remember her as a beautiful person- on the inside. The girl with the blonde hair, rounded face & eyes that crinkled with her broad smile. I look back & think maybe few people then saw the beauty I reflect back on each time I see her smile cruise my Newsfeed. She was not a thin child- nor was I. But I remember her laugh, see her childhood smile in her face, remember her as being kind, accepting. I was bullied lots in childhood- I ignored most of it (except the rocks that hit me)- but she was NEVER like that in my memory.
Today my newsfeed is flooded with people who comment about her beauty- and I wonder how long they have known. You see, she is thin now. She is married to the “swoon guy” of our high school class (also a nice guy in my memory). She works as a beautician/ hairdresser/ stylist. I wonder if these same people saw her beauty while she grew up, before she was thin. Before her outside matched the definition of society, while she was a beautiful & “not thin” person… I know I did.