“Be yourself” is a two-word sentence that is easier said than done, at least for me. How can a person be themselves in a society that has already set up norms? How can one be themselves when others might judge them for it? Well, I have gone through it all, and here is what I think: Just try your best to be yourself, even if it goes against the stereotypes people have made upon different groups of people.
As someone who is Asian, many people expect me to be extremely smart and have good grades, only to see that I am just a normal person who tries their best. Through this judgement, I have always tried to strive to become better and smarter in every way possible academically. Even when I got an A- on an assignment for class, I still wished I got an A+. When I got a B in a class on my report card, I would be upset with myself for not getting an A. Everything that I did was because I wanted to live up to the expectations of other people: to be extremely smart and have awesome grades in school. When I didn’t get the grade that people expected me to get, they would either pity me or laugh at me for not being able to achieve better scores, and I would like to tell you that getting laughed at or being pitied by people was not a fun experience. It made me feel so little, so miniscule, like an ant being cornered or a speck of dust that flies past a person’s face, unnoticed. I wanted to be better than what I have already achieved, yet when I try to, it doesn’t work out because this constant conformity keeps me from actually being better.
I have been in various friend groups and met many different kinds of people throughout my life. Every time I was in those friend groups, I felt like I didn’t fit in. You might as well say that I was a ‘weirdo’, even though not fitting into friend groups does not make you one. I was the type of person who didn’t understand why my friend group was the way that they were or why I had to like the same things as they did, but what I did understand was that if I said something that was the opposite of everyone else in the group, I would be judged for that. Again, I was trying to live up to the expectations that my groups of friends wanted to see in me. For example, answering a question as simple as whether we like waffles or pancakes can affect my status in the friend group. If the members in the group like waffles more than pancakes, answering that I like waffles would be the more correct answer to keep myself from being judged even more. This was what I often did to keep myself from being excluded from the various friend groups that I was in, all because I wanted to ‘fit in’ to at least one place. I always tried to get on the good side of all the members of the group, disregarding my own opinions and how I actually felt.
As life continued, I started to lose course of my path and my own existence. I didn’t know what I liked, or even what I didn’t like, because all my life, I had always tried to please people by letting them hear what they wanted to hear from me. All I thought of was to meet all my expectations, yet I didn’t know what those expectations really were. If I changed, wouldn’t that make me get bullied? If I wasn’t a certain way, wouldn’t I be judged for that? How can I be myself when I don’t even know how to be myself? These questions continued to linger in my mind, and I continued to live life aimlessly until I met a teacher in one of my classes who was able to see through me. This teacher helped me in being able to express myself and find my own opinions and reasons instead of following others. I was able to build up the courage to sign up for clubs and teams that I wanted to be a part of instead of being told to do something that I didn’t want to do. I was finally able to do things for myself instead of doing things to live up to the expectations that are expected of me. Since then, I have always strived to become myself instead of conforming to what society expects from me, even if people would judge me or call me a ‘weirdo’ for it. I wouldn’t mind being out of place as long as I was able to be myself.
If I can be myself, you can also be yourself. Who is stopping you from being yourself? You have all the time in your life to do what you want and do what you like. Through many trials and tribulations, I was able to become myself and form my own identity. The true charm of a person is to be yourself. Be confident, courageous, and brave to try new things instead of being told that doing a certain thing is against what people see as normal. It is true that in this generation, people are still being judged for their identity or being who they are when they are all the same: we are all human beings living on a planet. How are we any different if we are all human?
I hope that this message spreads wide and far and brings a smile to everyone who reads this message. This message serves as a reminder to me and everyone that being yourself is the key that opens you to many experiences and opportunities that will come forward. Just be yourself, and you’ll be able to achieve many things that you never thought you ever would.
omgg! every single world is so truee💗💗
couldn't agree more!