Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, INDIA — The teenage years are when children become hypersensitive towards their appearance, behavior, friend circle and also about how others behave towards them.
Teen problems are the most difficult to solve and are very common. Generally, teenagers have to deal with small but complicated problems that are a source of stress for their parents as well as for them.
As a teenager, I also deal with similar problems. The most horrifying of them was my problem with pimples.
A few months back, having my face full of pimples was the biggest nightmare for me.
What will be the reaction of my classmates? How will I attend tomorrow’s party? Oh! I am looking too ugly. Now my classmate Aditi will look better than me!
All these thoughts kept popping up in my mind, not only when I was awake, but also in my dreams.
I kept thinking about various anti-pimple creams and medicines to make my skin glow and look just like that of my favorite actress.
With this sudden change in my thoughts, my attitude changed, too. I became envious of others’ glowing skin and a formerly happy-go-lucky-girl turned into a reserved one.
The change in me created a problem for my parents as well.
Though they were well aware of the reasons behind my changed behavior, they kept telling me that the more sensitive I was, the more my problem would hurt me.
They were right. The more I tried to cure my pimples, the more of them greeted me the next morning.
I really had been tired of hearing comments and getting ugly looks from others, as if they were not pimples, but something from hell on my face. Then one day, while I was busy thinking about my pimples, I remembered the lines of the ABBA song, “I have a dream.”
I dont know what spirit of inspiration the song gave me, but from that day onwards, I started viewing my life from a different angle.
I made a resolution that I would never feel depressed due to some spots on my face again and I would pay attention to my studies.
I started ignoring the comments and the ugly looks. Whenever thoughts of depression cropped up in my mind, I tried to swipe them away.
All the anti-acne creams and medicines went into the trash.
The good part of the whole process was that my sensitive mind allowed me to do at least something to cure my pimples and I started eating a variety of brightly colored fruits and drinking lots and lots of water.
Slowly, I began to change, inside and out.
The spots on my face gradually decreased, maybe due to my positive attitude. The comments ceased and the ugly looks were no more in sight. My confidence increased and so did my marks in school.
Soon I saw myself standing boldly amongst the top three students of my class in the rank holder’s board.
With my own willpower, I sought a way out from my most common problem. A teenager’s life is full of problems and strong willpower is necessary for him or her to carry on in life. I learned that we must always love the way God made us and that whether the problem is easy or hard to solve, the solution lies inside the human heart.
Harsha Mishra is a Junior Reporter in India for Youth Journalism International.
