The easiest thing you can be is yourself. It’s as simple as that...or so I thought. Growing up, my mom always told me two things: always be yourself and never let anyone make you feel bad for who you are. We can be honest here, in middle school everyone is a clone of the next person. That’s just how it was and we all loved it. High school gets a little better but you still have the people who secretly envy the girls who seem “perfect” so they do everything they can to mirror them. I wish I could say it stopped in college but it doesn’t, I don’t know if it ever does. One thing I do know is, if you are your own person and are only trying to be the best form of you, then you are doing just fine.

In this day and age, everyone is obsessed with what everyone else is doing. From celebrities to your friends to your friend’s friends, everyone has to know. It becomes hard to not wish that you are doing the exciting things that other people are doing, especially when it’s plastered all over social media. The idea of missing out can make someone genuinely upset when in reality they probably wouldn’t want to do it in the first place if someone else wasn’t already doing it. It is hard to be unique in a world filled with so many stereotypes and perceptions that everyone “has” to be this certain way in order to fit in.

I’ve learned through many tears and stress that the only way to not be upset about what everyone else is doing, is to focus on only what you’re doing. So many times people get in fights or get jealous because they are not invited to an event or they aren’t doing the most fun thing around. It becomes more stressful as you get older and worry that you won’t always have a thousand friends and you won’t always be invited to everything. But, that also doesn’t mean you should fake your way into getting invited or having the most friends. The only way to have true friends is to be yourself. A friend of mine once said “the sooner people realize they won’t be invited to everything, the sooner they will be happy.” It stuck with me and could not be more relevant in today’s society. Everyone wants to be like everyone else and if they aren’t, they are so jealous that they will tear others down to make themselves feel better. What’s that all about?

We are supposed to lift each other up and accept that not everyone can be the same. We shouldn’t want to be a clone of anyone. I find it hard, myself, not to let the noise of social media and the growing obsession over the social life of the masses change my perception of myself or the way I choose to act. I know it’s not always easy to be your own person in a world filled with pressure to be everything but that. It’s important to be your own person because you are ultimately the one that has to live with that person…so… you might as well be the only YOU around.