i've always been aware that i have a tendency to frown a lot. my brow furrows when i concentrate. my expression when i talk to other people often involves an expression of curiosity or skepticism. and, yes, that means that i developed lines around my eyebrows at a young age.
what i'm realising now is that i may have moved beyond the point where "wrinkle" describes what's on my forehead. looking at the line- properly a "glabellar line", it looks a lot more like a scar than a line in the skin. it's a deep ridge that's obviously been there for a long time. if i stretch out the skin, the way it would be stretched if i had plastic surgery, the line is still clearly visible (although this procedure would give me these nice, almond-shaped eyes).
there are a number of options open to someone in my position. aside from the aforementioned plastic surgery, i can also choose to have my face pumped full of botox, or i could have a process called subcission, whereby the epidermis is cut loose from the muscles and tendons underneath it and is allowed to float, frown-free on the surface. (no word on what happens when i actually do want to scowl at someone.)
the immediate problem with all of these solutions is that they make me want to scowl even more.
in that way, i suppose, my little line is a scar. it's a scar from all the various things i've gone through, all the things i've been exposed to that have perplexed, annoyed, worried or infuriated me. what i can say, as i run my finger over the little ridge at the point where my eyebrow meets my nose, is that there have been enough of those incidents to leave a pretty deep scar.
so, no, i don't think i'm going to have my face rearranged or pumped full of botulism any time soon. maybe i'll just claim that it is a scar and make up some crazy story to explain how i got it. except that the amusement i'd get from spinning this yarn would probably leave me with laugh lines.