By now, you have finally received the long, well-deserved hours of sleep, went back to work, or attended the welcome-back press conference scheduled by your excited parents. The hype of your return has diminished, and you can determine this by the availability of your final grades. I’ll leave that subject there…
After visualizing your mistakes or successes, you begin to reminisce your actions, choices, and the amazing filters you used for your squad pictures.
Some actions you probably regret include going out when you had a project due on Monday, choosing certain people as friends, or one overlooked action not expressing your true personality to your peers. No, this is not another PSA sponsored by Gatorade to continue to be yourself by only drinking their energetic juice. But there's always a period in everyone's life when your glorious existence could not measure up to the people you considered possible lifelong comrades.
Since middle school, I’ve had an issue making friends or determining if that person is the right friend. Growing up in a Christian home presented some difficulties in friendships, such as misunderstandings from other people, entering a deeply-rooted secular atmosphere, and continuing to learn who I am.
Proceeding through high school, I would have the problem of people posing as my friend only to reap the benefits of my intelligence, talent, or community connections for their own personal glory. Similar to Rudolph, who believed something was wrong due to his shiny, red nose. His option to escape this indecency was to run away. In my case, my escape was the new chapter I embarked on. College life.
Entering college as a 17-year-old already presented obstacles, like constantly needing my parents to sign waivers and trying to hide my “minor” life. My goal was to deeply focus on my studies and hopefully attain friends who could motivate me and vice versa. Anyone thinks they can stick to a plan in a similar fashion, but the ways of college can alter your perfected mindset. After joining a few organizations, starting a step team, and rekindling my love for dance, I met like minded people.
By the end of my freshman year, I did not have the same friends from August 16, 2014. This is not an issue. Of course, many inspirational Instagram quotes can be applicable to this moment. “It’s okay to outgrow people because they can’t get to your level.” “This the season for cutting and snipping unnecessary people from your life <scissors emoji>.”
Rudolph did cut his family and synthetic friends off for a period of time, but realized he had to rejuvenate himself and accept his full potential with an added bonus: a shiny, red nose.
He discovered certain people should not be put aside, because they present a great importance throughout his life. This means that slicing and dicing who "wronged" you is not a good method to live life. You have to understand that not everyone will completely modify their mentality to exactly match yours. This sort of magical concept of "compromise" does not just apply to romantic relationships, but to friendships too.
Being a misfit can cause some difficulties, but remembering to shine your bright light (or red nose) will always attract those who are truly compatible for you.
