"Get The Cheryl Cole Look"

This morning as i sat at a bus stop in the center of Nottingham i noticed a large picture of Cheryl Cole on a billboard to my left. Ask the majority of men for their opinion on the top 5 most attractive Women and i'm pretty sure Cheryl Cole would make her way in their somewhere and more than likely to number one. Myself i've always thought her to look too perfect, i know that sounds strange but there's just something so fake about it, it's got most of the nation so i suppose it works, but it hasn't got me. This advertisement was for a hair product and there was a slogan at the bottom saying "Get The Cheryl Cole Look". Because she's not just fantasized about by men but she's idolised by women. Women who decide they're not happy with who they are and they'd much rather look like her.
Once upon the bus i somewhat nosily tuned into a conversation happening behind me between a Swiss chap and an English lady. She was quizzing him on the cultural differences between his home in Switzerland and Nottingham. Interestingly he noted Fashion as the biggest point of change. i had a rather unsubtle glance behind me and i didn't observe his choice of clothes to stand out as unusual but maybe i'm not the best judge of this. The English Woman he was speaking to went on to mention how there seems to be such a large variety of fashions in Nottingham, like different groups.
i would agree there is variety but you can fit these groups in to genres and it seems that everyone's trying to look like someone else. Is no one happy to just be their self? My last blog about the Cynic returning like so much of what i say and i think i mean was a hasty outburst in a time of uncertainty. Things have become more certain now and me and Ellise have actually been seeing each other for 4 weeks now. One of the many things i like about Ellise is the way she doesn't fit into a stereotype. i was talking to her about this yesterday and she said that she doesn't wanna just follow trends or look like everyone else. She is Ellise and she does a very good job of being Ellise. i am not discounting the influence we can have on each other and how positive that can be but i think we as people need to learn to stay true to ourselves and not just follow the crowd. It's something i need to learn to do. There is so much of myself that has been influenced by other people and so much of that is good and i am thankful to those people, yet i keep realising that there's parts of me which has nothing to do with positive influence or who i want to be but more to do with attempted conformity. This conformity i guess is influenced by the crowd around you, a lot of people may drink or smoke to fit in with their friends. i grew up in a very church influenced lifestyle and my attempts for conformity were mainly efforts to fit in with the church. This may not be obviously bad but i don't wanna follow any crowd, i only wanna follow Jesus, i don't wanna learn who my church friends or leaders might want me to be i just wanna learn who Jesus wants me to be. As i follow G-d and get to know Him i get to know myself, who i was made to be and i'm starting to learn a lot of church has to do with tradition and legalism rather than faith and i think G-d's path for me might upset some people. Everything is up in the air at the moment and i am still trying to figure out where it should settle. i welcome this change but i am scared by it too, i feel so much weighs on these decisions, this will dictate the person i become. That's exciting though.