Hiding Behind Our Mask
At the age of nine Lucy Grealy was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma a terminal cancer. She will spend the next twenty years being treated for cancer, including surgical removal of nearly half her jaw, intensive chemotherapy and radiation and more than two dozen cosmetic surgeries Ironically, even though the hospital represents numerous, painful operations and procedures, it becomes Lucy's greatest refuge against a superficial world's judgment of her disfigured appearance. Lucy enjoyed simply being in the hospital. “The hospital was the only place on earth where I didn’t feel self-conscious. She was away from all of the teasing, all of the funny looks and harsh words of other people. The hospital was a judgment free zone, a place where she could be herself and not worry about what others thought It was that pain caused by her classmates that affected her the most. Children can be very cruel. When kids make comments they do it for the sole purpose of a joke; but ends up scarring that person. Lucy was a child with a disability that she saw as "no big deal" it wasn't until her peers started to react to her disability that her insecurities arose. It's like that saying “when you are called stupid enough times, you start to believe it." She was unaware of her looks until boys at her school started implying she was ugly by saying, "Hey girl, and take of that monster mask. Oops she's not wearing a mask!" It’s all these different encounters that caused her to become insecure of her physical appearance. Nobody took the time to talk to her or get to know her they just immediately made fun of her and called her ugly. She just became known as the "ugly bald girl" Our culture's preoccupation with physical beauty is definitely manifested in our youth and adolescents. Lucy was exposed to the cultural drive for perfection in exchange for acceptance. No one wanted to know why, they just went straight to ridicule, and this is evident in her first days of...