In Defense Of Plastic Surgery
When most people think of plastic surgery, the first things that come to mind are emotionless faces, ridiculously pouty lips, watermelon breasts so big they no longer look natural or like they belong on a person, and what I like to refer to as the “Coco booty”, which is so big and unnatural it literally creates an inverted ‘v’ when a woman sits down. But plastic surgery is so much more than that and not all plastic surgery is created equal. Some is medical, some is cosmetic, but the end result is likely to be confidence! Who are those who have never been under the knife to judge those who have had a little nip-tuck?
The first time I went under the knife, I was just 15 years old. I had an umbilical hernia, which really caused me no severe pain, however; it was hideous. I had an outie naval that literally protruded like a gumball on my stomach. I was a teenage girl who cried and refused to wear bathing suits and belly shirts. It just felt abnormal. I would look in the mirror and feel disgusting. Normally, surgery like this would be performed at birth, but because I was born two months early and happened to be very sickly, the doctors refused to do anything about it. As I got older, doctors told my parents to wait until I was older. Needless to say, summertime as a child felt torturous. I hated what I looked like. I would hold my stomach and try to cover the ugly belly button as early as age 6.
The day of my surgery, I don’t know if I was more nervous or excited. The surgery was a same-day procedure and I got to go home a few hours later. For two weeks, I felt like utter crap. I couldn’t walk, couldn’t get up to use the bathroom, had to bath with a wash cloth. I was literally bedridden and regretted my decision. But all of a sudden, one day I could get up, the pain started to go away, and the doctors were ready to reveal my new naval. The first time I saw my naval after surgery, I thought I would die. It looked so weird, and it was covered in dried blood, but then they cleaned it out (much better!). Soon a month went by, and then two months, and a few more months, and then summer came and I found myself happy and full of confidence, ready to embrace a bikini for the first time in my life. For two weeks of pain, my whole life was changed. My confidence skyrocketed and I felt like a new person.
Recently as an adult, I have had a little more work done. It’s a more personal surgery, one in which I would rather not divulge, and once again the original meaning behind it was medical, something doctors could have fixed years ago. While I am still healing, and the process of getting better sucks, I am already on the road to recovery and confidence.
Yes, we should love and embrace ourselves for who we are, but if something makes us unhappy, I think it is more than okay to go ahead and fix it. Yes, some people take it too far, and yes, there could be dangers, but there are dangers in everything you do.
Plastic surgery is really a tool to help you boost your confidence. It doesn’t change who you are on the inside, but if something truly bothers you about your outside — and especially if it impedes the way you live you life — you should have the right to seek those options.
I believe if you have something you wish to change, you should change it. Do the research, weigh the pros and the cons, find a doctor you feel comfortable with, and make sure you have a good support system because you are going to want people around you who will be sympathetic and helpful. Don’t ever jump into plastic surgery blindly or make rash decisions that you may not want to live with. Plastic surgery is like a tattoo. You are changing a part of your body. Find the best doctor, ask the right questions, look at photographs. Lastly, and most importantly, make sure whatever you are doing is for you and only you. You should never change yourself for anyone else. Otherwise, you’ll only wind back up where you began: unhappy, and all of that time, money, and recovery isn’t worth that.