BEING YOU

Sometimes I wonder if there was ever a time in the history of the world when being yourself was ok. Now when I say this you have to understand that I mean being who you want to be and now how people expect you to be. Recently we have had kids both younger and older commit suicide because they were ridiculed for being themselves. They didn't fit in with the norm. So other kids that did treated them like they were outcast, harassing them to the point where these kids felt they had nothing left on this earth to live for. Now by no means do I agree with the way these kids handled the situation. I always feel that theres a way to get through tough times, and taking your life is not one of them. But imagine how bad these kids must of been harassed to feel that they didn't have any other options.

Our society tells us whats cool and whats not and also whose cool and whose not. When you watch a movie the "cool guy" isn't the kid who is in the marching band, or the one that keeps to himself and gets excellent grades, no the cool guy is the jock, or the most popular kid in school. The cool girl is the petite and pretty cheerleader that knows everyone and loves to party. Whats the last movie, t.v show, or commercial that  you' ve seen where the "cool girl" is overweight or not what society sees as attractive?

Growing up my mom has always told me to treat people the way you want to be treated. Now she didn't say treat "cool people" the way you wanted to be treated or "attractive people" that way but people in general. So I ve never put myself in a stereotype. I realized at an early age not to care what other people thought about me or who I was friends with. I judged people for who they were not who they were perceived to be. I didn't allow "pack mentality" to affect me when choosing friends and because of that I grew up with a great mix of people in my life from all different backgrounds and ethnicity's.

"Conformity is the killer of individuality"

It's important for us to strive to be unique in a world that promotes conformity. It's also equally important to recognize that we're all different, and in my opinion that's whats so special about the human race. We're all unique in our own way. The most important letter in the word unique is the "U", because that's what its about. It's about you and will be until you leave this earth. We don't have an eternity on this planet so why would you waste time being anything else but yourself every day?