"Your mom is so beautiful," my classmate said to me when we had a family day when I was in 2nd year.  I didn''t react.  I was tired of thinking what to say.  I know what he really wanted to say.  Your mom is beautiful... why aren''t you?

My dad is a seaman, and he met my mom in one of his travels.  One look at my mom''s blue green eyes, and I''m sure my dad was a goner.  Good thing my mom is into "inner beauty", so it took only a couple of visits in the span of two years, and she agreed to become his wife.

My titos and titas tell me that they were excited when my mom became pregnant.  Would they have a pamangkin with blond hair and light eyes?  In the end, the strong dugong Pinoy won, and out came I, with black hair and dark dark brown eyes. 

I hated it whenever they would ask me: where was the tall nose they were sure that my mom would pass on to me?  It must have been the 20 hours of labor my mom went through when giving birth to me, they say, ayan tuloy--medyo napisa ang ilong ko.  A lot of times I would want to scream, why are you poking fun at how I look, kamukha ko kaya kayo!

I don''t have more luck in school.  I had some good guy friends who would tease me because of my "Blair Waldorf headbands".  In my daydreams I think, maybe they tease me because they like me?  But that was over when they saw my mom.  After that, all they can talk about is how different I look.  One of them told me not to worry, maybe in time for my debut, my face would somehow change and be more like hers.

I sometimes think, why did it have to happen this way?  Didn''t I have the right to those blue green eyes?  Instead, all I got are these dark dark brown ones.  Believe it or not, despite what they all say, I don''t think there''s anything really bad about them.  It''s just that they''re not very special, I guess.  And that''s a big sin when everybody around me expected me to come out special.

Even Gossip Girl's Vanessa got to have blue eyes.  Why not me?

But then, just last week, someone from my section left me a message on my Facebook.  He said he liked how I looked in one of the pictures I posted with me and my friends.  He said he especially liked my eyes.

This was a surprise to me because he''s always so quiet, and of all things, he noticed my eyes!  I don''t know if anything will come out of this, but I am hopeful.  Finally, someone noticed my plain, dark brown eyes.  Finally, maybe, someone has found me beautiful... at least as beautiful as my mom.