To the five of you that will read this article, I hope you enjoy it,
Since the day we were born we have been taught to listen. We listened to our parents to learn our own names. We listened to teachers in order to learn new words. We listened to coaches to learn how to hit a baseball. And we listened to grandparents to learn about how things used to be. We listened and we listened and we listened.
The majority of our lives up to this point have been spent listening to others. The majority of what we have listened to has been beneficial to us and helped us learn things along the way. However, now that we are technically adults (yeah I can't believe it either) it is time to stop listening and follow our own path and learn for ourselves.
After we left high school for college it started a new chapter in our lives. We went from living with our parents, to living with kids our own age. We left a system where we were required by law to go to school for seven hours a day, to having the ability to skip class every day to sleep and watch Netflix instead. Needless to say life seemed a lot better in college. That is, until you realize what is really going on.
Now what do I mean by "what's really going on?" It has nothing to do with your school embezzling millions of dollars of tuition (maybe), but what I'm referring to is what is going on right in front of you. We have started listening to the wrong people.
After we left home we did not realize that we were still looking for someone to listen to. We were only 18 years old and still had so many questions, but the only adults we had were the dining hall workers and our professors, so what do we do? We listen to each other.
We gave people our own age the power to dictate our lives.
Things such as what we should wear, what we should say to that girl or guy we like, or what to do on the weekends. We made ourselves completely vulnerable just because we were looking for guidance. Now this would not be such a problem if it did not lead to us craving the approval of other people for everything. We just wanted to fit in. We wanted to do everything the way everyone else was doing it.
We got so caught up in trying to be what everyone else wanted us to be that we forgot to be ourselves. Nothing makes me more mad than listening to people not do what they want because someone else said they shouldn't do it. "No I can't text him, my friend said to wait" or "I can't wear that, my friend said it makes me look ugly." I have one thing to say to you people ...
WHO THE HELL CARES
I'm sorry to break it to you, but the experts giving you all of this information do not give a damn about what you do. I'm sorry, but it's true. There is no point in living a life that someone else laid out for you.
Be yourself.
Wear whatever you want.
Text whoever you want whenever you want.
Do whatever YOU want.
It hurts so much living in a generation where being liked is more important than being yourself. It hurts to see people make choices based off of other peoples approval.
So stop asking your frat brother what you should do this weekend, stop asking your sorority sisters which guy you should talk to, stop asking your roommates what you should wear to the party tonight.
Most of the time these people have no idea what they are talking about anyway. So stop valuing the opinions of people who are just as lost as you are. Stop constantly seeking approval. If you don't stop now it is just going to continue for the rest of your life. You will never truly know happiness until you stop worrying about the opinions of others.
So listen to yourself, you may be surprised at all of the good things you have to say.
Yours Truly,
Ryan Jordan
