What makes a person beautiful? Is it physical appearance? Could it truly be their ability to laugh in any given situation? Or is it simply intellect? This week, we debate what makes beauty, and why we all seem to see it so differently.
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Welcome to Smirk. A podcast that covers society and culture through a storytelling lens. Part creative writing, part discussion, and always interesting. Each week our hosts brings a story to the show, a story they wrote themselves, which is immediately followed by discussion on the author’s moral or theme.
These stories can cover any topic the host wants to discuss, it can be lighthearted or more serious. No one but the author knows if these tales are truth or fiction, and part of the fun is guessing while you’re listening before the reality is made clear.
We want to hear from you! If you want to share YOUR story, join the conversation by writing in to mystory@smirkpodcast.com, and include your moral, or you can let us guess at it. This is the podcast that looks at truth, fiction, and reality. With a Smirk.
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Want to read Amanda’s story “To Me, You Are” in full? Think you can identify the moral or theme for this episode? Read it below, and then take a listen to the podcast.
To Me, You Are
Taylor is the vivacious, blonde, Junior at her University, incredibly smart, really sweet, and wicked funny. She is on the gymnastics team and a four time Nationals competitor, taking Gold for her team twice. All of her friends, and even those she doesn’t know, admire her and want to be her. By all accounts, she’s probably the woman you’d imagine would be in a sorority and party on the weekends. But she isn’t; Taylor is different. What Taylor likes to do on the weekends when she’s not training for gymnastics, is play video games, board games, watch movies, and cosplay. She takes pride in being a bit of a nerd, and that’s also what she looks for in a guy… Now. But that wasn’t always.
You see, Taylor’s last boyfriend, Justin, was what you’d expect a pretty and popular girl to be into. Justin was a popular athlete, really fun to be around, always in a crowd. But he wasn’t really interested in Taylor, he just liked the attention he got from it, and he couldn’t stand the things Taylor was truly passionate about. He would make fun of her and tell her they had ‘better things to do’. So one day she finally walked away from him. She did it in private, was never callous, and just explained that they were too different of people. Justin went out with his buddies that night and told them he left her cause she was so boring and lame, telling them all about the nerdy things she was into. People began judging her and talking behind her back, but she didn’t care because she finally felt free.
So flash back to now, and Taylor is owning the person she is. She recently went to an anime convention and met this wonderful guy, Alex, whk is about her height, a little bit skinny, he’s sweet and funny, and is interested in the same things as she is. They’ve been seeing each other for about a month and they’re really hitting it off. One day after finals, he shows up to her school with flowers as a surprise and who happens to be standing there when they hug and kiss but Justin, his guy friends, and her fellow gymnast teammates.
“Wait, this guy?” Justin says, as he bursts into laughter. “This is what you go to after me? This.. dork? Come on, Taylor, you’re better than that.” Alex says nothing, he just looks at Justin and then back at Taylor. Taylor shakes her head, grabs Alex’s hand, and says “Let’s go, Alex”.
Justin and his friends continue laughing as he walks over to the car Taylor and Alex are getting into to leave. “Seriously, Taylor?”
“Justin, go away.”
“So what, you left me for this guy?” Justin’s demeanor now shifting to sadness and humiliation.
“No, Justin. I left you because you were a jerk. Alex and I have only been seeing each other for a month and he’s really good to me and I really like him. So please stop”, Taylor sighs with frustration.
“Wait, she broke up with you dude?” Justin’s friends question from the side.
“Whatever. He’s so ugly, Taylor. You can do better than that”, Justin replies as he’s leaned against the car door.
“Wow. You’re wrong and we’re leaving. Alex, go ahead and drive please” Taylor says, and Alex pulls away.
As they approach a stop light, Taylor turns to Alex, grabs his hand, and apologizes for what just happened. “I’m so sorry. Justin is, obviously, my ex and he’s a jerk. I really do like you and the things he said weren’t true. I think you’re handsome”, she says with her hand to his face. His face leans into her hand, as he stares into her eyes, and goes in for a kiss. Taylor looks at him once more, “to me, you are”.
Now, listen to the full episode as we dissect Zack’s story.