h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

There is a lot about life that so many people don't know.

When I hit puberty at 13 years old, went from 4"6' to 5"8' in about a year. I had screaming growing pains. I also developed a chest that was a size 44 DD. Now, some people may think "so what"? but they haven't lived like I lived. Suddenly I saw myself as being HUGE.

I was a friendly, outgoing child that was used to swimming, doing gymnastics, etc. Suddenly, the men smiling at me on the Metro were not thinking how I reminded them of their daughters...they were waiting for an opportunity to grope me, and many of them did. I learned when I was 13 that my boobs made me a whore. I learned that I was less than what I am. I learned that no one would look at me anymore, because they either stared at my chest (not even sexually, my chest was so big it drew attention from anyone) or looked everywhere BUT there.

I developed posture problems almost immediatly in an attempt to hide my size. I couldn't buy clothing that fit. Every dress zipped until it got halfway up my back and then it just stopped. Proms and Homecomings were hell.

I hated myself, and in spite of my family's attempt to make me feel better about it, the world constantly told me that I was horrible. A freak.

When I was 17 and leaving for college, I had a breast reduction that brought me down to a 38C. They took ten pounds off the front of my body. Now, 38C is not small...I'm not a small girl. Going down to an A would have been rediculous because I have hips and shoulders... but I have to tell you, my world started over after surgery.

I didn't have to special-order my underwear. I fit into my clothing. People look me in the eye. I started exercising again. I felt light.. free... whole.

I recommend a brest reduction for ANYONE who is thinking about it. And as for those of you out there who feel that people should love themselves for "who they are" and be "happy with what god gave them"...to you I say, what right do you have to decide for anyone? I am appalled at the arrogance that is rampant in this society about how people who are unhappy with a part of themselves should just "learn to live with it". It's insulting. I heard that so often when I was thinking about getting my reduction...about how I wasn't being true to myself... People seemed to feel I was selling out...I was giving in to the Kate Moss ideal.. I wasn't being brave enough to uphold their ideas, which in all honesty had nothing to do with me or my life. These people are not helpful, they're dangerous.

No. I was getting sexually asaulted when I was 14 because old men think that if you're big chested that must be gods way of telling the world you need to be fondled and raped.

If you want plastic surgery, have it. The moral elite of the world be damned. They don't know what you've been through. And anyone who thinks other than that, please take your opinions elsewhere. I had to listen to you all for years and you don't know from the proverbial hole in the ground.

I guess it's easy to knock people who decide to have cosmetic surgery, and attribute it simply to arrogance.

Thanks to Krissy for pointing this out, sometimes there *are* very valid reasons for going ahead.

Well put Krissy...

Thanks Peta. I'm sorry that sounds so angry. It's just something that I had to fight with for years. People would assume I was a good or bad person without knowing the hows or whys of my decision.

I've become defensive out of enforced habit. Thanks for saying something kind.

Thanks for being so open.
"I wasn't being brave enough to uphold their ideas, which in all honesty had nothing to do with me or my life. " Exactly. You're living your life, not theirs. Upholding their ideas is not you job, it's their's.