I’m a very ordinary person,
Maybe even less than ordinary,
Because ordinary people love themselves.
Whereas I hate myself.

When I was little,
I didn’t like my face,
Because I had a big nose.
You laughed, didn’t you?
That’s understandable.
But it really hurts.
Your comments about the way I look kill me,
And believe me,
I’ll never show that I’m upset.
On the contrary,
I might even joke about my appearance along with you.

I have zero self-confidence.
I hate going to weddings and events,
Even at school.
I felt like everyone was always staring at me.
One time,
When I was a kid,
I fell in love with a girl.
When I asked her if we could be friends,
She said,
“No, because you’re ugly and you have a big nose.”
Those memories make me laugh now.
We were kids.

When I got older,
I got acne all over my face.
If I had looked halfway decent before,
I was a lost cause now.
I learned to live with it.
People always ask me,
“What’s that on your face? And why is your nose so big?”
Or “Why don’t you get some work done on your face, so you look acceptable?”
Their comments might seem harmless,
But I swear they stabbed me like knives.

But I decided to stop caring,
And to be more confident and outgoing.
Then in the 8th grade,
I became the treasurer of the student union,
Which gave me a bit of power.
Students started getting closer to me,
Because I was important at school.
I felt like a king,
Whenever I was called out of class to go to the principal’s to attend a meeting.
All eyes were on me.

I fell in love with success ever since,
And grew to want it more than ever.
I studied hard,
And placed number 7 at my school,
After practically being a failure.
I entered high school with solid determination,
And I became an important figure at school.
Everyone liked talking to me,
Especially the top students.

I entered my last year at school,
Still full of the same flaws:
A big nose and acne.
But I was now immune to remarks about them.
I still get upset, sometimes,
When people make unkind remarks about the way I look,
But I now care more about my future.

I got into pharmacy school with a 97.7% total.
I became the only pharmacist in our village,
And the only pharmacist in my group of friends.
Everyone saw me as someone important,
As a result of all the effort I put in.

I’m still in my second year of university,
And I still have the same flaws,
But they have made me what I am.
If I hadn’t had those flaws,
I wouldn’t have been academically and generally successful.