Beyond Beauty

Beyond Beauty by Maria Fokas

The last day of 2013. I won’t go back to recall everything I had planned to do and didn’t get round to doing, because that part doesn’t matter anymore. I guess the best part of a journey is not knowing what the days will bring after everything is planned and the wheels are turned into motion. So I focus on the unexpected which took place. That part I can assure you was incredible. Yes there was the good and the bad but I would not change a thing, and to be able to say that, I feel lucky.

I won’t deny that universally speaking we are in a crisis. I watch the news and fall into depression. Daily errands are also difficult. Sometimes I cannot but eavesdrop on strangers’ conversations between their friends. They share their problems right in front of me, waiting in line to purchase essentials or for some other service …and they share the facts…financial problems shrinking their dreams and relationships falling apart and the worst of all…that terrible doubt of whether they are good enough, or pretty enough, or thin enough. They speak of their struggles in ques at the bank, at the supermarket, or at the doughnut shop down the street while getting their morning coffee. They don’t care that I listen because I don’t exist in their world, only their problems are real at that moment in time , not me. I’m just a face with no relevance to their lives. So I listen to their sadness and learn from their mistake; the mistake of forgetting the light at the end of the tunnel – that mistake.

And then I remember the story; a simple 20 – second story my sister shared with me one weekend when she called just to say hello. I never asked any personal questions like the name of the girl or what part of the country she was living in, that wasn’t as important as what this young girl did to solve a common problem which she surely felt was destroying her life. After I said good-night to my sister I decided to fill in the gaps of everything she had left out. This was a 15 year-old young girl who had an acme problem. She had tried everything to get rid of it but nothing worked.

There was no product on the market that could help her. OK there is worse-off out there but for the young girl this was creating a domino effect compromising her happiness; peer pressure, boy issues, self-esteem was running low, and there was no help from the adult world. I am sure she had thoughts of isolation where she would accept her state and just hope it would take care of itself in time. But she didn’t choose that path. She began a journey determined to solve her problem. She began research. She must have been confused but she didn’t give up. The alternative was living in the shadow of her teenage years and that was not an option for her.

Eventually she came across a natural product; sugar. She learnt that when sugar is dissolved in liquid it creates a positive reaction to her skin. Then she improvised. She started using fruits for liquids creating her solution. After school when everyone was talking about where they’d hang out, she went straight to her garage where she struggled endless hours. After a few months her friends started noticing the positive effects and wanted to get in on the action. Her skin was changing before their eyes and they liked what they saw so she started selling her creation. Months later she set-up a website and started selling online.

Now, four years later at the age of 19 this young girl has a business worth 3.4 million dollars. She never gave up and though too young to actually be an expert on anything she never lost sight of that light at the end of the tunnel. Sometimes the most successful people are the ones who know too little about the facts on limitation to give up. She fell many times and got right back up and in the end she did it; she proved that the possibilities are endless if you don’t give up.

Sometimes we feel less than what we are, we doubt, we get frustrated, we forget the important stuff and then a stranger comes along and reminds us of our uniqueness and, the choice to believe in ourselves – to create the impossible.

Please watch the video clip I thought I’d end the year with….

A Happy New Year to all.