I think one of the hardest lessons to learn, especially for young adults, is that everyone is going through something--including yourself. People are so quick to judge and they look at social media accounts and judge even more. Everyone has a backstory, they have chapters, important ones, they don't show the world out of fear.
The beautiful girl that has over 1000 followers cries herself to sleep every night because she doesn't feel important enough from the people who matter most. That boy who is constantly playing basketball and shooting hoops? His parents marriage fell apart and he's trying to distract himself.
People always seem to forget that there are broken souls out in the world. But today's society has made it so easy to have people pretend everyone's life is perfect.
News flash
No one has a perfect life in any way. Everyone goes through life a different way. We all experience things differently and at different points in time.
For example, you and your best friend have a sleepover, you both wake up in the same room on the floor, you are both starting your day, get up, get dressed, walk out the door to your car, drive to school.
Within, say those two hours of waking up and going to school (even though if it were me it would be about ten minutes before I had to be at class), you two have already had two completely different days. You may of woke up in your house, with your family, like any other day but your friend didn't. You made yourself waffles for breakfast while your friend had cereal. You drove the two of you to school so while you were paying attention to the traffic and stoplights, your friend was daydreaming and laughing at squirrels chasing each other up and down a tree.
And that's just the physical differences. You two have had different experiences in your lives. You decided to drive down a back road because fall is slowly starting to settle in and the leaves look beautiful but your friend is sitting in the passenger seat silent because this road was where their first real date lead to late at night. You arrive to school happy and ready to take on the day but your friend arrives nostalgic and trapped in memories.
What other people say about you is not who you are. Those people haven't lived your life, they haven't experienced the same things as you have. This is the hardest lesson--learning to forgive someone when they don't even understand that they need to be forgiven. They are too focused on their own lives and their own problems. Taking a step back and realizing that the boy who called you weird or "different" because he hasn't even a had girlfriend and has no idea how to treat a girl in the first place, is a blessing. Knowing that the girl who just called you a bitch probably has bigger problems going on in her life than what your biggest problem is (which is what Rom Com you are going to watch tonight on Netflix) is a freeing feeling. You learn to love who are, not who others want you to be.
"You is kind,
You is smart,
You is important."
Don't let anyone make you forget that.
