One beautiful April morning, on a narrow side street in Tokyo's fashionable Harujuku neighborhood, I walked past the 100% perfect girl. Tell you the truth, she's not that good-looking. She doesn't stand out in any way. Her clothes are nothing special. The back of her hair is still bent out of shape from sleep. She isn't young, either - must be near thirty, not even close to a "girl," properly speaking. But still, I know from fifty yards away: She's the 100% perfect girl for me.
- An excerpt from On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning, Haruki Murakami
I never understood my friend Philip's devotion to Haruki Murakami's novels. I chuckle at it knowing our favorites are worlds apart, given that I have a heart for Irish authors. I never picked up one of his books to engulf myself in wonder, so it would be unfair to say that I never liked his style. But it just seems easy to say that this piece is a work of love. However impeccably strange, it conveys a message to every hopeless romantic... and to every girl resting in the shadows wanting to be someone's 100% perfect girl- wallflower or not.
I spend a huge amount of time trying to look better- wearing the right hair, the right clothes. A part of me just doesn't want to sulk about being unnoticeable, but also because my pseudo-competitive persona sprawls out in every dimension of my being. But you know, it's a good excuse for people to think you're afraid of getting insecure. Now I get it. I've met a couple of stunning ladies here and there, so beguiling that they belittle me. It took me far enough to know that most of them only conceal their fear of being obscure beneath that thick layer of make-up and fancy clothing. Behind all that, I saw a narcissist, or a girl with no confidence taking pride in the worth of her clothes, or an incredibly jealous girlfriend who thinks her boyfriend will eye someone prettier. We've all known, but not like this, that appearances could deceive so much. I may have my ways of turning my life into a fashion show, but my competency has fences built around it. I don't wanna get that far. There's always a queen bee following the footsteps of Snow White's evil stepmother (or if she's rather feisty, she'll make a Royal Rumble out of the skinny bitches' club).
It's a good encounter that I have happened to watch Barry Munday some nights ago. Some light has been shed on what Ginger said. "You wouldn't understand, but there is power in being undesirable." I thought it was something only a gangly girl wearing a knitted sweatshirt and nerdy glasses like her would say, but there was more to it. There is a correlation between being unnoticeable and wanted as that. It's so easy to fool the eyes of a person into thinking he likes you because of your appearance, but sweeping a guy off his feet and getting him to think you're his 100% perfect girl by looking like a trainwreck and without even trying-- that's power.
I was an English major once (for a year) and glad that I share these sentiments with people of the same wavelength. I was pretty surprised when my good friend Fay shared this. It was always Philip who's the Murakami prophet. I may have left that old road but my love for literature (and my friends in that department) remains.
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I've had fever for the past few days and now I have measles. For a sick day in, being profound is not a crime.
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