Member-only story
The Recognition of a Smile
I smile like a flower not only with my lips but with my whole being.
— Rumi
My laptop only recognizes me when I smile. I did not realize it can’t recognize me when I merely look at the camera, until this morning when I started making goofy faces (hoping it would see my various features as they stretch and expand, looking sillier and sillier each passing second) until I finally started to smile at how outrageous my facial recognition truly is. It was when I smiled that my laptop recognized my face. I then signed into Windows Hello to see when it would accurately scan my face for its unique features, only to find that it found me when I had a smile on my face — thus thinning my upper lip, giving my eyes a brighter appearance, emphasizing my lower left dimple, revealing my pearly white teeth, and lifting my cheek bones toward my sparkling eyes. At least that’s how I envision my smiling face when directing it toward my laptop’s camera.
It then dawned on me that the statement fake it ’til you make it could not be more accurate! When I smile, I not only look (according to my laptop) but also feel a completely different person when compared to my natural, stoic face. Growing up, I was always told I had what was known to be: resting bitch face syndrome. So naturally, everyone assumed I was indeed a bitch…
