Would you like to know what is so ugly? The word UGLY! According to Google, the definition of ugly is “unpleasant or repulsive, especially in appearance.” When we visually absorb the definition up close, the word ugly begins to deeply encompass its graphic nature.
And how often do we as a society utilize that word to describe a multitude of objects, events and ourselves for that matter? Whether or not it should be a word we casually throw around, we do it regardless because how often are we acknowledging its raw connotations?
Student’s Take on Ugly
Ugly is a powerful description of distaste toward what our human nature is currently in opposition with. For Penn State students, the ugliness they’ve been in months of enmity with is the cold weather. Layers of clothing, wind burn and the often heard comments of “I should have gone to a school in the south.”
Though having a class cozied up next to the beach or doing homework while soaking up the sun’s extreme rays seems appealing, perhaps that particular lifestyle becomes ugly after a long period of time too.
When getting in contact with David Barthelemy, a second-year student at Louisiana State University, who grew up in Brooklyn, New York he shared how he was, “finally excited to have summer all year around…” he thought it would be perfect.
“The second I stepped on Louisiana soil, I took it all back.”
David Barthelemy – sophomore student at Louisiana State University
Barthelemy experienced a season of ugly when having to endure the continual high temperatures and heat waves, as he ventured into his collegiate years. He recalls, “breathing in hot air from the second I woke up and sticking my head in freezers just to try and get any resemblance of the cold.”
An Opposing Effect
So what is evident is that Barthelemy’s idea of ugly is our version of paradise and the chilly days we have a tendency to dread, Barthelemy longs for as he faces the vicious heat for months on end. Delivering the idea that the ugly is needed to appreciate the goodness life has to offer.
Without the ugly, it becomes easy to lose sight of an anticipated hope and become greedy in an unreliable concept that all that glitters is gold.
The colder weather can be difficult, but VALLEY doesn’t recall falling snow to be unpleasant or repulsive to look at. Clothing layers may feel lumpy, but no visionary damage occurs when we observe our outfit of the day.
It simply may be that we’re a tad bit dramatic, hence the reason the word ugly is utilized so often in our society. If we lacked the ugly, we would lack the good as well.
Humankind chases the desire to want what we can’t have, but what we’re shielding ourselves from realizing is that what we already have is entirely what we need at this moment in time.
Diminish the ugly by sharing the goodness that surrounds you! Share your stories with VALLEY on Instagram or X @VALLEYmag!
