Humor/Teenage angst
How Being Unphotogenic Got Me Through My Board Exams
And pretty much saved my academic career
As a teenager, I hated being in photos. I was convinced I was not photogenic. My nose was too patrician (long), my eyebrows too luxuriant (thick), and my forehead too intellectual (wide).
Every time someone asked me to “Say cheese!” my expression instantly went from cheery to gloomy. I knew I was going to look awful in the photo. And with me scowling into the camera, it was a self-fulfilling prophecy.
I joked about it. “My photos don’t do justice to my gorgeousness.”
Secretly, I was bummed. When you are fifteen, you yearn to look drop-dead gorgeous, whether in the flesh or in a photo. But as I discovered, not being Miss Photogenic can sometimes be the best thing to happen to a teenager.
My final school year —
It was a scorcher of a March afternoon. The first day of my board exams in my final school year.
I was walking home with my best friend after writing my English paper. The exam center was fifteen minutes from where I lived.
We were nearly home when my friend opened her schoolbag. She was afraid she had left her student ID card in the…
