All too often, we find ourselves trying to mimic someone else. “Be yourself, everyone else is taken!” is one of the truest statements I’ve ever heard. What is it that makes us want to be like someone else? Are we not comfortable in our own skin? Why is it so easy to try to be like your friend, your neighbor, your cousin, or that girl on TV, but it’s so hard to just act like us?
I feel like we’re so influenced by others and the way we’re treated that we’re scared to be outgoing and be the person we truly are. We’re so scared of being criticized that we’re afraid to even have our own voice. We take things all too seriously and need to realize that our problems aren’t as big of a deal as we think. “Be yourself!” seems like such a simple thing to do, doesn’t it? But honestly, do we really know how?
I believe that this is one of the hardest things to do, especially for young people. Being high school-age, I can honestly say that feeling criticism from your peers is one of the most intimidating things in the world. It starts from such a young age, when we’re just getting used to the idea of being in a sea of other individuals and people with different beliefs and ideas than our own. From the first day of pre-school and for the rest of our lives, we’re surrounded by others’ ideas of how we should be, and we listen. We do what we’re told and never question it, yet the same people tell us to just be ourselves. Every day, I heard things like “Oh, look at her!” or “Wow, did you see him?” in regards to appearance. This is what makes us so scared to act like us. If we could all learn to be more accepting of others and not use harsh criticism in our daily lives, it would be much easier to live our own lives.
When I started 7th grade, I was terrified of how others would perceive me and was petrified of being teased for the way I may have been seen as. The next year, I was a little bit more comfortable with who I was, that I became much more outgoing and spoke out more. By 9th grade, I knew what I wanted for myself and I understood myself a little bit better. Since kindergarten, I was worried about who I was and I had finally figured it out. It didn’t matter, as long as I myself was happy.
Out of all the lessons I’ve learned in my few years of existence, this is by far my favorite. The key is to just be honest with yourself. If you aren’t, you’re not only lying to yourself, but to everyone else as well. Neither you or anyone else will ever know who you really truly are inside. Worrying about how others feel about you is one of the craziest things to worry about, when you really think about it. It isn’t hard to figure out who you are, the hard part is expressing it to the world. If you don’t worry about others and don’t put yourself in such high regard, it will become that much easier. Be smart, weird, loud, fun, creative, anything as long as you’re happy with that person. In the end, no one else matters but yourself.