Appreciating Bee!

Another commentor on the self-acceptance/appreciation train!  Whooo hooooo!  Thanks for the participation, Bee!!  In case it’s not obvoius… the pic above is a ukelele.  😉

Here’s Bee:

Um, hi. I lurk around the Fatosphere quite a bit but have never really gotten up the nerve to comment, but I think this is such a wonderful idea. I hope you don’t mind me sharing, and you’re welcome to make this comment a post if you like.

x I have mad awesome hair. I was always terrified to cut it because I have a round face and thought long hair would somehow hide that, but when I finally did, I discovered the most amazing sproingy curls imaginable, and I haven’t had to brush it in two years, let alone blow-dry, straighten, or anything else.

x I am a bona fide high school dropout. Getting out of that toxic environment was the best decision I ever made.

x Now I have an associates degree and have been accepted to a one of the top engineering programs in the country to do what I absolutely love—aerospace engineering.

x I used to be afraid of being the only girl in the room (it happens a lot in the physics department), but now I actively look forward to it. I like when people underestimate me, because then they never see the academic tush-whooping coming.

x People make fun of the way I talk, which is sort of a bizarre amalgamation of the most annoying features of rapidfire nasal Chicago talk, a slightly more rural twang (I grew up right on the border between the worst part of the “wrong side” of a small city and endless corn—hello identity crisis), and occasionally something straight out of Fargo (family). I fully embrace my wholescale vowel slaughter and Midwestern stereotypes.

x I play four instruments. The violin has opened the most doors, but my favorite is the ukulele.

x I am a huge, unrepentant nerd. I do calculus for fun and will happily spend hours at a time watching just about anything with “Star” in the title. The fact that both my parents are hardcore Trekkies and old school Doctor Who fanatics may have contributed just a little to this.

x On the other hand, I also love football (Go Pack go!) and obsessively follow all the crazy storylines of sports media and sports broadcasting. I tend to be a walking contradiction.

x I love wearing cute, preppy clothes and geeky t-shirts. I feel a little ambivalent about deliberately seeking out that kind of conformity, but at the same time, being a fat, queer nerd doesn’t mean I have to be outwardly radical in every aspect of my life, either. On the other hand, I live in combat boots in the winter, but that’s a practicality issue—it’s cold here!

x My taste in attractive people is eclectic to the point of being just plain strange. I will never understand the idea of a “type”—I like ‘em tall, short, fat, weedy, geeky, athletic, butch, femme, anything!

x I live for alt-country and Bloodshot Records, but I’ll listen to pretty much anything. Seeing The Wallflowers live was the best day of my life.

x I nearly never notice eye color, but you’d better believe I can wax poetic on a person’s smile, hands, and body language, because that’s what always catches my attention first.

x Writing is very cathartic for me, even if it isn’t always a good read. I’ve always got so many stories bouncing around my head it’s hard to think straight sometimes, but I’d be lost without them.

x Today, I realized that for me at least, “I feel fat today” has absolutely nothing to do with my actual weight (I am pretty much fat every day), but more that I feel the negative connotations society has so permanently associated with fat. I think I want to stop thinking, “I feel fat today,” and start making it about whatever issue is really at hand.