My Quest for Authenticity

As I get older the more difficult it becomes to stay true to who I am. In my Child Development course, we learned that babies always show their "true" emotions. When they are crying, they are sad, and when they are smiling, they are happy, yet as they become older they learn how they should act in certain situations and begin to modify their behaviors based on other people's perceptions. I think it's sad that we have to do so much pretending in our interactions with others. We live in a world that tells us that fake is beautiful. Plastic surgery, makeup and other enhancements are the only ways to "snag a man." The other day as I was walking back to my dorm I passed two girls and two boys in "going out clothes" laughing and giggling. The girls were being incredibly fake, and it just made me sad and angry that those girls are what men want. But, what about being a genuine person? Shouldn't that matter more than having a perfect appearance that's going to fade eventually? I choose to believe that being authentic and real is more valuable, and I'm on a quest to live those words in practice.