Forget Who Society Wants You To Be And Remember Who You Are

It’s crazy how we allow ourselves to so easily forget how lucky we are, even in the simplest of forms. We lose ourselves among that everyday chaos and impatient rush between the briefest of moments to the next, and we so effortlessly take everything we have and are for granted. We forget about all of our simple pleasures in life and all those little things that bring us the purist amounts of joy because we’re so dismissively oblivious to the world around us.

We’ve become so obsessed with making ourselves live up to this unrealistic version of ourselves that’s been so meticulously sculpted by society that all we catch sight of is the limited and dissolute illusion of reality that we trick ourselves into believing is all there is when it’s merely a guise—a smoke screen, a self-destructive comfort.

We’re so focused on other people—looking good for other people, pleasing other people, making other people like us—that the orthodox has now become simply forgetting to love ourselves.

We forget to wake up every morning and smile at ourselves in the mirror with triumph and pride when we’ve made it through another tireless day of self destructive tendencies and trying to talk ourselves out of constantly hiding in the corner of our lives when WE are supposed to be the star of our existence.

We forget to tell ourselves that we’re beautiful and capable of great things and that everything’s going to be okay, because no matter who you are, where you’re from, or where you’re going, sometimes all you need to hear is that one day it WILL look up. The clouds WILL clear, the darkness WILL end, and you WILL love each and every ounce of yourself.

We forget to praise ourselves when we have successes, no matter how small or large, because all we’ve ever known is continuously beating ourselves up because of our failures—what we didn’t do, what we failed to do, the job we didn’t get, the one who got away, the friend who’s mad at us, the mistakes we’ve made that can never be undone, that stupid thing we said, the people we’ve disappointed, the test we failed to perform well on, the failures that have become all we constantly think about, our apathy, our hate, our disinterest, our lack of passion, our envy of things that are not ours.

We’ve taught ourselves time and time again that the negatives about our lives outweigh everything else; they outweigh our imperfect perfections that make us who we are, when in reality, nothing could ever be more overpoweringly breathtaking than our individual quirks. The only thing that society has ever taught us to do is to conform, and if we’re unable to do that, then we’re insignificant failures despite all our success in life.

We get so blinded by overwhelming waves of emotion from feeling inadequate when they shouldn’t cause us more than a trickle in our tides; yet somehow, they find their way beneath our golden armored skin and cause a tsunami of guilt, regret, anger, hatred, resentment, and any other impulsive defeatist emotion to force itself against us. It forces OURSELVES against us and into a search for a ‘better’ identity to call our own.

It’s time to stop beating ourselves up over the things that we can’t change and the people that we are. It’s time that we reverse this cycle of self-destruction and pity for ourselves and instead take pride in who we are and all of our underappreciated, overlooked accomplishments.

It’s time that we acknowledge the dozen doors that closed to open two dozen others with more opportunities to grow. It’s time that we look within the silence of ourselves for the answers, rather than within the careless words that spill out of our mouths. It’s time that we seize to compare ourselves with other people, because when we look from a perspective of envy, we’re only as good as the society that has belittled us into believing that we’re dispensable and insignificant.

It’s time that we rekindle the flame inside our souls and unapologetically take back our lives from all the people who thought we’d never be anything more and allow ourselves to be the people we’ll idolize. It’s time that we see truth in our failures and all of the things we once took for granted. It’s time that we appreciate all of our many setbacks, because it is impossible to achieve greatness without defeat. It’s time that we remember who we are.

You don’t need to live up to any societal standard, because the societal standard is flawed.