All my life I have constantly worried about what other people think of me. I want to have a lot of friends and be seen as a fun person to be around. As a result, I tend to filter who I am. I don't say all the weird things that come to my mind and I rethink something over 1000 times before I say it, to make sure that people can relate or find it funny.

I recently just graduated from High School, and during that time my group of friends was already established. As a result, I wasn't worried about any of them leaving me because they loved me for who I was. I realized that once I got to college, I became nervous about things that I would say or do once again. It began controlling me and it really made it hard for me to make friends because I was afraid to step out of my comfort zone and talk. If I did say something, it would give me an opportunity to say something different than what was expected.

The thing is though, people can sense a facade. People can tell when you're holding back who you are. It's not fun for me to hide who I am or worry about how silly I am. I'm in my third month of college and I find myself no longer rethinking what I am doing. I have just started becoming myself again and ever since doing that, I made my first friends of college.

I no longer care what people think of me because I am comfortable in my own skin. I know that no matter what, I have friends and family that will support me for the rest of my life.

Letting go of all the things I am nervous about helped me grow as a person. I realized that the only way I will ever make friends is to not give a sh*t because people want to know who I am and not some filtered, held back version.