Even though it may be a rather inane movie, I really enjoy EuroTrip when it's on TV. It's about four friends (three guys and a girl) who are traveling across Europe in a trek to help one of the guys (standing in top middles of poster) meet his internet dream girl (blonde at left in poster) who lives in Germany. Basic plot and whatnot, but I still laugh.
However, I'm discovering that the film does espouse one gospel truth. While in I want to say Belgium, they visit one of the world's most notorious nude beaches. Upon arrival there, they discover, much to their horror, that it's populated only by nasty old nekkid men.
According to a travel guide that is the bible to one of the characters (the one in the green checkered shirt in the poster), the women are only there at certain times because they realize that they become the ogle targets of these men and have, hence, moved themselves to another beach.
I think this is the truth here in the States as well (save for the nude beach part of it all). Beaches are made out in pop culture to be a place to go to find all the "beautiful" people in the world.
But this is far from the truth. In Clearwater Beach, the place was packed with the following percentages:
- 2% beautiful people (that could be women or men who deserve to be dubbed "beautiful")
- 58% beautiful people watchers because they are not beautiful themselves.
- 30% people who think they are beautiful and need to be smacked upside the head until they realize they are not.
- 10% people who don't give a rat's ass and are just there to be there. No people watching and no attempts at ego self-inflation.
Before you all start to think I'm a raving egotist myself, I realize that I am part of the immoral majority. Yes, I people watch. Not ogle, just watch. I think I was born a sociologist. I like to see what people do and how they react in given situations. Yes, I do know that I'm anything but beautiful. That's a fact of life I've long accepted.
But it's this 30% that really bug me. They either walk around in bikinis or Speedos and hang over the sides or they are walking around with their chests puffed out and stomachs sucked in (you can always tell the latter because their faces, despite all the tanning lotions, still roughly resemble the color of the water they are standing against).
People, just accept who you are. I know you strive to be better. Heck, I strive to be better; that's why I work out at my gym. But the first step in realizing what a great person you can be is to accept who you already are. It will make achieving your self-beautification goals that much easier. If you can't accept who you are now, you will never accept yourself down the line no matter what steps you take. It's a mad, vicious cycle.
I'm not even entirely there, yet, but I'm damn sure trying. Unlike when I was a kid, I can actually take my shirt off at the beach now. If people want to laugh, they can laugh. But beware... over my 30 years of life on this planet, I have developed a whip-smart and biting sense of humor that can leave you with tear-stained streaks of Banana Boat running down your cheeks... and I'm not afraid to use it. Taunt at your own risk.
Why am I having visions of the French taunter from Monty Python and the Holy Grail right now?
Oh, and because of my burns, I was actually wearing a T-shirt today as well as a hat and sunglasses while in the water and on the beach. The T-shirt, despite my previous declaration that I am comfortable enough to be topless at the beach, was more an attempt at self preservation than a stab at ego massaging.
I still felt like a tool, though.
