Being Yourself: Not Caring What They Say

Being Yourself: Not Caring What They Say

            In everyone’s life, there will be people who judge you. Not just judge you by the surface, but by every living piece of you and every single part of your soul that you hold dear. This can’t be stopped nor controlled by you. So it’s the common question, what can we do? Well, a lot of us like to say, nothing, nothing at all. But what does that make us then? Cowards to the truth? Pushovers that fall towards the evil depths of societal ideals? No one is perfect, and you’ve heard that a million times I’m sure, but that doesn’t mean you have to stop being who you really are just because other people don’t necessarily agree.

            I have a friend, who in elementary school seemed like just another kid to me, but it turns out he was very different from everyone else. He told me of times where kids would make fun of him just because he played a certain card game that certain kids thought was nerdy. I never really talked to him during this time and never really knew the struggle that he went through. He was cast out by practically every social group except for his own and actually got teased a lot. I was oblivious to all of this. I didn’t know what was going on, nor did I really care, I was too busy thinking about my own life at the time. It wasn’t until much later that I learned more about him. I felt so guilty not doing anything about it or knowing what was going on with him. He was affected pretty badly by this but never let the words get to him like anybody else would. I was amazed by this, after all the rough times he had been through, why had he not changed just so it would stop. I brought this point up one day to him in later years and he told me one thing I won’t ever forget. He said “I’m never gonna sacrifice who I am for who people want me to be. I would rather die being myself, than live in the shadow of others”. Now for him being a high school student when he told me this, it was probably the deepest and most true thing I have ever heard. From that point on I chose to live by those words, they ring so true in my head and in my soul that I won’t let anyone change what I think for me.

            So many people I see in school live in the shadow of others and try to fit to the mold that society tells them they should be in. Yet life in itself is so much better when you are happy with yourself, rather than constantly trying to live for others approval. Changing for other people to like me is one thing I will never do in my life, not after all that I’ve seen and heard from others who are lost in the blinding glory of being appreciated by someone other than themselves for two seconds and then discarded again only to search for that next praise someone can give them.  I refuse to be one of those people, I choose to stand out from the crowd every day. In my own shape and form. You should too, because life is worth a lot more when you do.