Shelter for Quinn (Badge of Honor: Texas Heroes Book 13)

By Susan Stoker

Quinn had a port-wine stain birthmark, and she suffered for it. My weight has been an issue for so long, and even when I do my best to stay healthy, I still feel self-conscious.

Quinn had to live through people’s ignorance when they talk about her birthmark within her hearing. I heard the same.

I also remember when I was active with a mountaineering group, some of my colleagues talked about someone with the same name as mine, and when someone asked who that person was talking about, he said “the pretty one, not the fat one.”

I was within hearing distance.

It hurt. It hurt that even when I was killing myself going through the rigorous training we had, just so I keep myself fit enough to climb, I still heard grown men and women talk that way.

It hurt, knowing that even as these people talked about me in a negative way, they enjoyed the food I prepared. I was the camp cook at that time, and I made sure that the climb team had the best food to sustain them during our trek.

While it is often said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, this is not the whole story — it partly depends on what was recently seen.

–David Alais, Professor of Psychology, University of Sydney

Like Quinn, I learned to ignore those who sought to pull me down. It is my body, after all. As long as I kept myself as healthy as I can, I have long accepted the fact that my weight will forever stay with me. I learned to make good food choices, I learned to set aside a “me time” to keep in shape. I learned to not let people like Jen, Taco’s ex, get to me.

With Shelter for Quinn, Susan Stoker reminds us to not let our imperfections be the source for people to let us down.

Imperfections—birthmarks, physical and mental disabilities, all of them should be celebrated, for each of these make us unique individuals. With or without a support system, these imperfections are tools we can use to become a force of good to our families, our friends, to society.

Me, for example—even though people made fun of my weight when I used to climb mountains, people saw that I could out-climb them that I could lead a climb team. I could also, even when all my bones were aching after a hard trek, ensure that my teammates were well fed, comfortable, and warm.

That experience—being alluded to as the “ugly one” and getting hurt by it then—does not define me today. It has made me who I am today, more confident, more decisive. I am more understanding of people and their need to lift themselves to the detriment of others.

The experience has also strengthened me as I go about my work in politics, and in the field of public relations.

Yes, beauty, I believe, is in the eye of the beholder, but are we to consider only beauty that is skin deep, or the beauty within our hearts? In this day and age, the choice should be obvious.