I am not and I will not be a slave to my emotions, I have heard the saying many times “feelings are not facts”. Oh do I struggle with this, as human beings, it’s pretty logical to think that we act on emotions but I don’t believe this.

I think as humans we act how we think society would like us to, what our parents would like us to do, what our peer group would like us to do. All these things are interwoven into the deepest reaches of our actual self; they have become a part of us and most likely will always be a part of us.

No, these things aren’t always bad and some of them are beneficial to daily life, but you can’t live your life through the lenses of another person. You have to create yourself. I distinctly remember as a young teenager, I had all these fantastic ideas and dreams all the typical thoughts of a young kid, but somewhere along the way I lost the ability to have faith that I could actually do those things. I just assumed they were adolescent day dreams and left it at that.

But, truth be told, I still could feel those dreams from time to time deep inside my actual self. The things I really wanted to do included write a book, get published, travel the world. But with all the social norms, I was afraid to take the leap of faith and put myself out there to be criticized and judged. I would share these things with my friends and parents and they would say things like “you won’t be judged, or you won’t be criticized” but that’s bullshit.

You put yourself out there and you will be judged and you will be criticized, but that’s where the magic happens. This is where I started to realize that I’m not doing this for anybody else. Yeah, I hope I can help a few people along the way, but this is really just for me. I think this applies to so many people, especially the millennial generation. We are so connected and aware of what everybody is doing that we get caught up in playing a role that’s really not what we would like to do.

With social media, we have begun to create a sense of self that can be optimized to fit exactly what we think other people would approve of. Don’t get me wrong, I am totally guilty of this too. I am not bashing anybody, but what I’m trying to do is promote self-awareness. Take some time to yourself and figure out what it is that you want, try to crack open those old day dreams, dig in and believe that you can do all the shit society says isn’t possible. Be the anomaly, the 1 out of 100, the one that makes a difference.