Nowadays it seems that everyone is really into the word “chill”. Chill can be used to describe hanging out with your friend and it mean that you are going to “hang out” with your friend (*cough cough*), but I most commonly hear it being used to describe a person’s personality. Someone who is chill is someone who doesn’t give a damn about what anyone thinks about them, someone who you can constantly joke with but never gets offended, someone who is cool if you will. The problem I have with this word it that it’s seems like so many people of my generation like to self-label themselves as chill. They strive to be a chill person and change the nature of their personality by not raising any conflict or just by being okay with everything and anything.

I’ll let you in on a little secret. Trying to be chill all the time is exhausting and not even worth the effort. You should be allowed to be upset when someone offends you instead of being exiled to the land of “no chill”. Why should it be the norm to bottle up every emotion and conflicting thought or opinion just because doing so will make people think that you are just okay with everything? I have lived that life, and it is not a fun one. Too many times I have been hurt but too shy to bring it up with the person who hurt me for fear that they will think I get offended too easily or that I’m burdening them with my sensitivity. It’s not a healthy way to live.

There are people out there who are genuinely chill people who get along with everybody and never really have conflict. And to those who are like that, let it be known that I admire you. But to the reset of the population who tries to act like they are the go with the flow type who thinks their opinions or feelings will make others uncomfortable, to you I say lose your shit! Call out your one sibling because they call you that nick-name you hate so much. Tell your friends that you don’t like eating at that one restaurant that they like to go to all the time. It’s a boring world to not have an opinion and to keep everything to yourself all the time. Why sit idly by trying to act chill when you can tell people what you really think, when you can live the life of someone who has absolutely not chill! I encourage all of you to go out in the world and embrace your lack of chill!