Editorials

#YEAR11PROBLEMS

9 May 2016

By Lauren E. White

It’s fine not to follow the crowd

At this time in our lives, many of us feel the compulsion to follow the crowd so we can fit in. This could be so that you’re friends with people you want to be, or so you can be invited places with them. Maybe even to make them like you.

But if you’re going against what you believe in and not doing what you think is right, know that it’s fine not to.

It’s fine not to follow the crowd.

You are a unique individual with the right to do as you please (within reason…). You don’t need to like the same music as the people you hang around with. You also don’t need to go against principles that you hold dear or do anything you don’t want to in order to fit in.

One important thing to note is that if you find yourself doing things you don’t want to do, the people who encouraged you aren’t really your friends. If they won’t accept and love you for who you are and what you believe, what are they to you, really? And what does that make you?

Trying to fit in is something that touches us all, myself included. But knowing and deciding not to discard your true self to be yet another copy and paste of someone else is one of the most liberating and honest things you can do.

You only get one life in this body. Live it for yourself, not for anyone else.

See you next week.

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