Scars

Today the strangest thing made me smile. I was sitting in my car, waiting impatiently for my mum, when I looked down and traced one of my scars with my fingertips, instantly bringing a grin to my face. It was then I got to thinking of the importance of scars.

While many of us look at our scars with disgust as majority of the times, in pure vanity, we hate the way they look; they are really so much more than ugly marks we should get rid of. Our scars tell our life stories; they show the world where we have been and what we have encountered. They enable our life journey to be etched on our skin. Scars give us character, and separate one individual to the next. Each scar we hold is distinctive, with its own unique memory attached to it. Some of these memories may not be so favourable, but each of these memories has made you what you are, and these marks are there to prove this. They are reminders of our past. I am lucky enough to have roughly seven great scars plastered all over my body. Each of these holds parts of my past that have been quite significant. Funnily enough, quite a few of them have resulted from several motorbike accidents (you think I would have learned to avoid them) that, while very scary at the time, still remind me of the fearless girl I used to be. Two of the others resulted from having moles cut out, and hold my great story of how these wounds were cut open twice from a doctor who (and yes I secretly have a crush on him) did not numb the area properly so I could feel most of the procedure. This was apparently a rarity, which relates to the fact that if anything could go wrong, it would happen to me. Let’s just say I am very accident prone, and my scars are reflective of this. There is also the scar to the left of my left eye, where my cousin pushed me into the corner of a cabinet, reminding me of our childhood memories and the little boy he once was. While others seem to think I would hate this scar, I secretly love it and feel that I would not be me without it. One of my final scars, occurred on the night of my 21^st. The boy whom gave me my first kiss also gave me this scar in a drunken state, when he lifted me up to give my first ‘dirty dancing’ experience, only to drop me resulting in a nasty, yet hilarious fall. I know that whenever I look at this scar I will think of him and smile.  That’s what I love about scars, they are flashbacks of the past, and when you look at them you reminisce on life’s journey and remember just how far you have come.

There are also those scars that are not so public. The ones hidden deep inside us. The ones that no one can see. These are the ones we hold in our hearts, and they grow bigger and bigger with every disappointment and heartache we encounter in life. They can occur from losing loved ones, broken relationships of any kind and any experiences that may hurt us. The thing about these scars is that they cannot be seen or touched, but only felt through emotions and understood only by us. We are the only ones who know the stories behind these scars, or the impact left as a result. These scars hold our own secrets and do not have to be shared with the world, as the memories connected to these scars are ones which we can keep to ourselves and are only shared when, or if, we feel we feel ready to do so. These scars may never fully heal, as they are not as easily remedied as those that occur to us physically. The best thing to do with these scars is to acknowledge them and give ourselves the time to recover. These scars also hold many memories, which at first we would rather forget, however eventually we can begin to smile about them and realise that these horrible times also held great positives and lead us on the path we were supposed to follow. Ironically, these wounds make us stronger and teach us life lessons that we would not have learnt other wise.  Once we realise this and appreciate the memories, we then know that we are in the healing process. It is also important that we remember to overcome the fear these scars left and to never be scared to start again. Scars, both those hidden within us, and those appearing on the outside, remind us of the paths we have taken and those future paths we still have to encounter, where the possibilities are endless.

So no matter what the scar is, show it off proudly, and do not try to hide it! It is part of you, and like me, you may one day look down at a scar and remember your great life story and smile…