Beauty and the Scab

**Disclaimer:  Scary pictures of me with no make-up on… and sometimes the hair isn’t done either.  You’ve been warned!**

Ever since I can remember I have been told that I have a ‘beauty mark’.  Looking back at pictures of myself as a child, it seems that my ‘beauty’ started to appear around age four or five.  I HATED IT! 

While others looked and saw ‘beauty’ all I could see was a hideous dark spot on my face that couldn’t be hidden.  Believe me I tried.  I remember whenever I would meet someone new I would pull my lips in and tuck them between my top and bottom teeth.  It didn’t hide anything but it made me feel like people noticed it less.  I think it made the mark more noticeable, if anything. 

I would watch my mom put her make-up on and asked her why people wore it.  She explained that it’s to help even out the skin tone and make blemishes less noticeable.  I couldn’t WAIT until I was old enough to wear make-up!  My ‘blemish’ would disappear! 

Guess what… it didn’t work.

But then people started comparing my ‘beauty’ to that of Cindy Crawford’s.  Ok, she is gorgeous and who wouldn’t want to be compared to her?  Not that they were saying I really looked like her.  I can only wish, but they always said, “You have a beauty mark like Cindy Crawford!” 

And then it was ok.  I loved my mole.  It became ‘me’.  It pretty much defined me.  I was Brooke, the one with the ‘beauty mark’. 

Do you see it? 

Well, I’m going to let you in on a secret.  That picture is deceiving because that’s not my ‘beauty mark’ at all. 

Let’s take a closer look…

IT’S A CRATER!! 

I went to a dermatologist a few months ago and had it checked because it has changed over the past couple of years.  It used to be dark and flat… still raised slightly but flat.  It had become more of a bubble and it was much lighter.  It didn’t look suspicious so he sent me home, but…

I didn’t want a witchy mole!! 

So, I thought it over for the past several weeks decided to have it removed, much to the detriment of my family.  Anthony was sad when I told him that I wanted it removed, “But that’s my Brookie!”  And little H said, “But you won’t be Mom anymore.” 

That broke my heart just a little but guess what… I’m still Mom and I’m still Brookie!

The doctor himself even tried to talk me out of it.  Something about any mole that accents the lips or the eyes is a BEAUTY MARK while anything that accents the ears or the nose is NOT!

Oh, I had cyst removed from my right temple and another mole from the back of my neck/shoulder area.  I looked pretty awesome after the procedure! ;)

**If you were “lucky” enough to see the pic that was here, go you!  I’m too embarrassed about it now to let it stay.  Just trust me when I say that I was lifting ONE eyebrow… it’s true!**

BUT LOOK AT THAT PIC AGAIN!!  See what I’m doing?  It’s the one and only time I was able to live out my lifelong dream of lifting only one eyebrow at a time.  Granted, I didn’t have a choice in which eyebrow it was.  By default the left one had to raise because the whole right side of my face was asleep.  But still, I was excited about being able to lift one.  Ignore the fact that I look constipated… I’m just concentrating.  Even with half my face dead asleep I had to concentrate for this.  That’s how badly I have wanted to lift one eyebrow.  I even texted the pic to Anthony right away just so he could bask in my victory with me.  It was a proud moment for him, I’m sure. 

Yikes!  I sure hope he didn’t show the picture to anyone at work.  That would be embarrassing!

And now, a pic of my battle wound bandages.  Because I’m sure that you care… and because I don’t want that last pic to be last one you see… UGH! 

In conclusion, I just want to say that my ‘beauty mark’ no longer defines me… my crater SCAB does!  (At least until the scar replaces it.)