Various cultures across the globe have their own perceptions of beauty. As an international student studying at a diverse college, I have noticed that even though we all play an equally important part in adding to the uniqueness of the college community, we are all very different from one another. We all believe in "our own kind of perfect," and this has made me appreciate everyone's perception of being beautiful.

We often describe beauty as the external appearance of an appealing person. Be it their mesmerizing eyes or heartwarming smile, we are so engulfed in a person's outer beauty that we don't pay attention to the beauty inside them. We overlook the important truth that, even though people can enhance their looks, the most beautiful people are those with a good heart. You could have flawless skin, perfect curls and a gorgeous collar bone, but they are wasted if you have an ugly heart that doesn't care for others, but only for yourself.

All our lives we are led to believe that to gain attention we need to aesthetically fascinating. In our modern society, we all want to seen and heard. Basically, we all want to make a huge difference to the lives of the people that concern us. There's nothing wrong with that as long as you stay true to yourself and as long as you don't try to please others by being something you're not or something you hate. Truly beautiful people know that their appearance is nothing compared to how they look on the inside. They don't look at life as an equation, where everything is either a gain or a loss, but they have had moments when they have shone their inner beauty by bringing out a smile on another's face.

It's pretty simple, to be honest: why would anyone strive to be beautiful instead of finding happiness in the moments that make them feel alive? Most of us are afraid to be ourselves; we don't know how to see the beauty in the flaws and imperfections, we don't appreciate the happiness of fitting into that old pair of blue jeans and we overlook the smile on our parents' faces on our graduation day. We put the immediate attention we think we deserve before the happiness we find in these moments. That's why most of us go through our lives thinking we are either not good enough or not worth the fight and then distance ourselves from true, inner happiness.

The true meaning of being beautiful lies in the moments that bring you the utter joy of surviving and making it through every difficult situation you thought you never could. They are the moments when we realize the strength in ourselves, learn to accept failures and overcome our inhibitions.