I Don’t Need Plastic Surgery To Feel Good Enough

“Would you ever get plastic surgery?” my sister asked me when I was old enough to know what that was. She continued, “Some people get it when they feel that their natural appearance is an obstacle in life. Would you get it then?”

I said no. We were living in one of the richest towns in America, and yet plastic surgery was still mostly frowned upon. It was considered to be too expensive, to be shallow, and to be inherently insecure. Moreover, as a religious family, we believed that focusing on one’s appearance too much was like turning your body into an idol, and idolatry of course went against the 10 Commandments. No one in my family had had plastic surgery. 

As I grew up, I still didn’t want plastic surgery. I always felt beautiful, and I was quick to excuse any “flaws” that didn’t match the media. I wasn’t tall like a model, but being short was cute. I didn’t have blonde hair, but brown hair was approachable. I didn’t have blue eyes, but my brown eyes were very trustworthy.

A girl in high school had had a nose job. Some boys pointed it out to me. She was an upperclassman I really looked up to for being funny. “It looked good beforehand,” a guy told me. “She didn’t need one at all,” another guy said.

In my 20s, my nose grew to the size of my dad’s nose, which is prominently semetic. You know that joke about fitting your fist into your mouth? Well I don’t know if my nose will even fit into my closed fist. It is that big.

Again, I was quick to excuse my big nose and maintain my confidence. I’ll date less shallow people, I thought to myself. I’ll naturally be surrounded by people who are nice and can “see past” my schnoz. It turned out to be true.

It’s never crossed my mind to get a nose job. Sure, I’ve never had the money to do it. Yes, I see the ads in the local papers. I am indeed working towards some higher paying careers, so it’s possible I might have the money to do it someday.

But my sister was so wise to slant this conversation towards the whole will-it-keep-you-back-in-life thing. Because it hasn’t. I’ve had over 20 jobs in 20 years—every job in town, basically. Education, food service, landscaping, writing, music, medical, retail, childcare, and more.

Honestly, I’m probably jinxing it here, but I’ve had one the biggest female noses in the world for 15 years and nobody’s even mentioned it. Yes, there is a lot of drama on reality shows and such, but people can still be surprisingly polite.

I love looking like Gonzo. It’s nice to be recognizable, especially now that I’m seeking more roles in the visual media. And maybe if I had had plastic surgery, that’s when people would have started talking about my nose. Maybe they do that now. But I assume they only have nice things to say.