Crooked

The other weekend my parents were in town. We were all gathered together talking about what the newest member of our family will look like...will he have dark hair like my sister? Will he be blonde like my brother-in-law? Will he have a Redente nose or Backos nose...both representing their European country respectably. 

I stared at my parents. 

Who did I look like?

I asked my parents' opinion. My mom told me I looked more like my dad. I stared at my dad. I have his oval face. His Italian coloring. But my other features seem to be a perfect blend between the two. I told my parents jokingly I would have appreciated a more symmetrical face.

"My smile is crooked," I said. "One side goes up higher than the other."

My dad tilted his head to the side, looked at me inquisitively, and said, "Only sometimes, but that's you...that's Jessica." 

I looked at my amazingly beautiful and very symmetrical older sister. "Do you like everything about the way you look? You never complain." She told me that even if she doesn't like something, she can't change it, so she accepts it. Very sound advice.

I've despised my crooked smile since I noticed it in my 7th grade school picture. I've spent hours in front of the mirror trying to figure out how to smile so both sides of my face are the same. An incredible waste of time for something I cannot change.

The moment my dad said those words, 'That's Jessica', something changed inside of me. I don't know why it's taken thirteen years or why it was that exact moment. I think I finally saw it from my parent's perspective. They wondered for nine months who I would look like and when I finally arrived they undoubtedly spent hours staring at their new baby...excited that she had her daddy's eyes and her mom's fingers. Not caring for one moment that her smile was crooked.

I am their daughter, their creation, I am made up of bits and pieces from both of them. I'm proud to look like both of my beautiful parents...two of the people I admire most on this earth. 

Although neither of them have a crooked smile, that's just something unique to me, I think I'm okay with being the only one in my family with this quality. 

That's just me.