We have all seen them -- those perfect girls on Instagram or YouTube who seem to have the perfect life. They travel to different exotic places and have the perfect style, and you find yourself saying, Why isn’t my life like that? Or, Wow, their life is so perfect. But, let’s be honest -- no one’s life is as perfect as the internet makes it seem.
Just recently, Instagram model, Essena O’Neill took down many of her Instagram pictures and re-captioned others to show the truth behind her posts. Starting many captions with “Not Real Life,” O’Neill goes on to explain how while she looks good in terms of societal standards, in reality she was barely eating and feeling angry and alone. And while this is just one example, it is true for everyone.
Now, obviously everyone is not a world famous Instagram model, but everyone, and I mean everyone, puts on a mask to hide their problems. No one wants to go around talking about their problems all day long. That would be exhausting. So instead, we bottle up our emotions and don’t really tell anyone our full story. We only see the parts of people that they want us to see, so why would we compare ourselves to them?
You may know a person that just seems to have it all together, but I promise you that they don’t. Everyone has a chapter that they do not read out loud so no matter how perfect a person seems, there is something devastating that has happened or is happening to them. We all have demons that haunt us and try to hold us back, including the people who seem like they don’t. Honestly, we are all a mess.
College students in particular, we are the messiest of human beings. We have the world at our feet and the independence to do whatever we want. And this is a good thing, in theory. It’s a constant roller coaster. One day we will think we have everything figured out, and then the next we see a friend on Facebook getting an awesome job or traveling to a foreign country and suddenly we begin to doubt ourselves. We think we have a plan, but then something happens to turn it on its head. Graduation is this murky abyss that scares anyone who thinks about it more than two minutes, but we are so quick to say what we need to be doing because of what we have seen other people do. And this way of thinking can be toxic.
As humans, we compare ourselves to everyone, all of the time. Whether it’s their life or their looks, we see people and ask ourselves, Why do I not have it together like they do? This really needs to stop. We are all unique, and we need to learn to embrace it. Everyone has a different path and that is what makes people so interesting. By comparing yourself to others, you are diminishing your individuality. We all have different passions, which lead us to live different and incomparable lives. So instead of comparing ourselves to others, we need to learn to embrace our individuality because honestly, as long as you are happy, you are doing it right.
