I had a mountain-sized pimple bubbling underneath the surface of my skin the other day. It was bright red and hurt when I tried to pop it. It was the only thing I could look at when I saw my reflection. Each class I walked into, I felt like everyone was staring at my chin which held this grossly red hill. When people talked to me I thought this giant zit was the only thing they saw.

Do you ever have those days?

I went to work the other day and realized my leggings had a rip in them. The hole was just above the knee. It was smaller than a quarter, but big enough to show my leggings' imperfections. My whole shift was filled with constant wonderings if all of the customers noticed this.

Do you ever have days like this?

I spent two days coming up with a caption for a picture I wanted to post. The caption had to be perfect because my life had to appear perfect on social media. All of my followers would see this picture and would judge me. If I didn't get enough "likes" then that meant that the world hated me and I had no friends.

Do you ever live your life like this?

Why are we so worried about what other people think?

I remember when I was younger and I was in the grocery store with my mom. I was in that awkward tween stage of having a mouth full of braces and jeans that didn't fit right. Complaints and negative comments about my outward appearance were spilling from my mouth. Finally, my mother just looked at me and said, "Hanna, no one cares enough to notice those things. Not everyone is staring at you. It's selfish to think that they are."

HA! Wowza did that shake me up! This whole time I had been worrying so much about what everyone was thinking of me when in reality...they weren't thinking about me in the first place.

Humans are selfish - they're not worried about you or anyone else around them because they are too focused on themselves. I mean when was the last time you were talking with your friend and couldn't help but only stare at their pimple on their forehead? You probably didn't even notice it. When was the last time you thought twice about the picture you double tapped on? Were you really going to judge your whole view of that person based on one artsy picture of their latte?

So, let go.

It's okay to have imperfections. It's okay to not look or act or post a picture like the person next to you. It's okay to walk into Starbucks with messy hair and no makeup on - no one notices. No one will stop what they are doing and turn to watch you walk through the door of that coffee shop. They are too absorbed in their own lives - their work, family, friends - to care to spend time scrutinizing the flaws you list in your head when you look in the mirror.

I've come to realize that what my mom told me when I was a tween is true. I don't want to be so caught up in myself that I worry about what people think of me.

I just want to be myself.