Emerging from the Ugly

Now I’m not too sure if everyone is aware of the phrase that so and so is “being ugly.” I was not aware of what this meant (because, seriously, someone is just ugly, it isn’t a state of being) until after I moved to Georgia. I am originally from Maryland, so I had to learn a whole lot of southern phrases upon my relocation to the great south! So back to my point, when someone is “being ugly” that means that they are doing unkind, vengeful, or deceptive things, which makes them ugly in the eyes of their peers. I actually rather like the phrase because it indicates that people are in a state of ugliness rather than are dispositionally “ugly” or mean. 

The reason I bring this concept up to y’all (haha, had to do it) today is that I have been witnessing and being on the receiving end of quite a bit of ugliness. Honestly, it puts me in a bad mood, making me be rather ugly to an unsuspecting bunch of people. I won’t go into too much detail about the ugliness that I have been a part of; however, I will say that being vengeful in a situation really does get you nowhere. Most of the time, that type of reaction makes you appear “ugly” to others who may or may not be privy to the situation at all, and honestly comes back on YOU, even the situation SHOULD dictate differently. 

Now, what do you do when you are on the receiving end of ugly? That is a tough one! My initial reaction (because I’m a fierce red-head) is to confront it. That method has been probably as successful for me as it has been a failure. It really depends on who the “ugly” person is. I REALLY attempt to examine the intention, rather than the action. However, sometimes the action unveils a very “ugly” intention, which really is probably one of the most unfortunate situations to be in, especially when you believed that this person’s intentions were positive. There isn’t a really good answer to this situation other than that the knowledge is valuable. 

Now, I have been talking about ugliness for three paragraphs and wanted to end on a positive. Even when you are in a situation of ugly, it is really up to YOU to do things to alleviate the situation as well as being resistant to turning ugly as a result. I definitely had an ugly day or two within the past couple of weeks and I do little things to help become “not ugly.” Things like, getting up an hour earlier to cook myself breakfast and do my hair. Or having a nice glass of wine and watching Enchanted. If you put yourself in a better state of mind, other people will feel that and the ugly will shrink away. 

One last thought. It is ALWAYS helpful to do something nice for someone else (especially if they have been in a weird situation) because it definitely holds an impact (shout out to my awesome boss who brought me to work from the tire place after discovering a flat tire on an “ugly” day). It definitely started my day off right! SO HERE’S TO NOT BEING UGLY! J