I have always had a problem with trying to be practically perfect in every way.

The perfect son.

The perfect friend.

The perfect co-worker.

The perfect everything.

This year I have realized that I have a problem with putting everyone else's' problems and feelings before my own. I have always been a people pleaser. If everyone wanted to go somewhere that I particularly didn't want to I would suck it up and be quiet. A lot of my childhood was kind of just going with the flow and never speaking up. I wish I would have had a little more courage to speak up for myself in certain situations.

During my 11th and 12th grade years, I found myself changing every single aspect of who I was just to try and fit in. I was buying clothes that I didn't even like and spent thousands of dollars on a car that I thought would put me up higher on the social ladder. I had a whole plan figured out to achieve that social euphoria. And it worked. People were starting to figure out who I was and I was finally getting this popular lifestyle that I had always wanted, but towards the end of it, I felt empty. I was hurting innocent people along the way and I had seen that I was ditching some of the true friends that had been there for me from the very beginning. Would I ever go back and change it? No! I met some incredible new friends along the way that I love dearly and it was a learning experience for me. I was just being someone I wasn't.

So the lesson to learn here is to never change yourself to please others and just stop trying so hard because people can definitely see right through it.