I had the most humiliating experience of my life today at work.

[davidthegnome]

150. She's the repulsive one.

I have a friend at work - he's a dishwasher, who works for minimum wage, but works his butt off. He's one of the best, most energetic and enthusiastic employees we have. When it comes to working non-stop and making things clean, I have never seen his equal.

Being a dishwasher isn't the cleanest work, so his clothes are often torn, or dirty, especially when he's coming off of a shift. I've had people come to me and tell me how scary he looks, complain that he smells, or that he's just "creepy". We often have conversations towards the end of the night, or when he comes in to work out at the gym. I have rarely had the pleasure of knowing such a genuinely decent person. He has a heart of gold. Yet people look at him askance, or with that sneering, haughty look of revulsion because he doesn't look "just like everyone else". I make sure to give those same people my own personal look of revulsion.

You have a good heart, an intelligent mind - an active and dedicated goal to improve yourself and the world you live in. I don't know what you look like physically, but I expect that it is nothing at all like what you fear. I have known beautiful people who were heavy, I have known people who wore rags, people who were (to the weak mind) "scary looking". But you know what I most recognize about them? It is that they are, generally, far nicer people who are far more dedicated to being kind to others and to making the world a better place. THAT is where true beauty lies. Not in fashion magazines, not in our despicable celebrity obsession and worship for the perfect form - but in the hearts and minds of genuinely good people.

I'm not Adonis either. I'm probably 25-30 pounds overweight - it's been a while since I checked. But someone who judges me based on that alone? Not someone I want to know. Not someone I would like. Not someone I would ever think of as beautiful.

You are more beautiful than Adonis for the goodness in your heart, more handsome and more appealing than any number of phony politicians or movie stars. That girl who gave you that look? She's ugly. She's unappealing. As a man still currently in the dating game, nothing ever turns me off more than arrogance or superficiality. Had she given me that look, I would have given her a big grin and otherwise ignored her.

Don't ever let ugly people convince you that you are not beautiful.