Growing up, I was always different. I never quite fit into what people expected me to be. Middle school was practically hell. I stood out with stretch-waist-jeans and weird Converse that didn't match my body. I was different, and as we all know being different in Middle school is rough. Its not easy for anyone to survive those awkward years. Yet by some miracle most do and go to high school. Now this is when my weirdness peaked. I went to a new school and knew only two people. I once again stood out. This time with my behavior and actions. I was not like the other kids and I never understood why. I fought against my personality and only wished to be someone else. However, time has passed and now I am in college. I grow more and more, surviving through the ups and downs. I became more accepting of myself. My differences make me me! All of my friends, my family, and yes the haters have shaped me. Made me realize that being unique is OK.
Now, I get it, we're all unique and different. No two people being the same. Yet what we strive for sometimes can be the same and that leads to stereotypes, generalizations, and exclusion. It takes time to find what you want to be or who you desire to become. I think no one will ever know who they desire to be because it changes with time. Just like trends change, fashion changes, everything in this world changes. So who we want to be also changes. Who I wanted to be from freshmen year of high school was so different from who I want to be now. It has made me unique, different from the normal. In high school, it's terrible being different, but people get used to it and accept it. Then in college, you realize that you no longer need to seek others approval. Rather, you need your own. You need to be happy with yourself. Once you do that, you will realize that being happy with yourself actual makes you unique. It is something that so few achieve and something many struggle with. We trim, cut away parts, and mold ourselves to fit into what other people want.
This is me rambling, but at the end, learn that being unique is cool. It makes you different from the person sitting next to you. So before you judge the loud person sitting across the coffee table from you. Before you sit there and pick apart that girl or guy for what they're wearing, doing, saying, or believing in realize that is what makes them unique. It is what makes them different from you. So be happy that they aren't you. Rather, they are what makes the world great, something different. So hate or judge all you want, but also realize that the difference between what you expect is what makes being unique OK.
