Self Love in a World of Criticism
I don’t know who needs to read this, but here it is…
In my final year of high school, about three year ago, I went through what I now look back on as my “discovery phase”. If you knew me at the time, you would know exactly what this phase entailed…a whole lot of social media posts with novel length captions preaching about self love.
Now, as I am almost a junior in college, I look back on and am so grateful for this time period in my life and the realizations I made during it…though I do wish I made them sooner! My young self could have really benefitted from hearing all this, so that is why I am sharing it with you today; in hopes that it may help :)
Growing up I never really came to terms with seeing myself as “normal”, and my grade school, middle school, and nearly half of high school brain did a great job reminding me of the thought. I was constantly trying to fit into a mold of someone that I was not. I hid my likes and interests for the better of my peers, hoping to spare them from all the “quirky” stuff that I was into at the time (and still am now, actually. The plans for my Pokemon themed 21st birthday party are in motion, thank you very much!) I still thank whatever gods there are that I never caved into society’s conforming nature…
It is very hard to love yourself when society pressures you to be someone else, pressures you to hide what you love for fear of being called out. Society has created this image of “perfection”. Included with this image is a set of instructions—might I add very detailed instructions—on how people should act, and if we do not act in this certain way, we are stuck with a bright red and bolded label: “weird”.
So, how are we supposed to embrace ourselves and act how we truly are when this barrier is holding us back from truly loving ourselves and expressing our interest? Well, that is the conundrum of life, I believe. It is hard to not worry about what other people think about you and it is as equally as hard to say you love yourself when people around you are constantly judging you for who you truly are. The mindset that we are in is that we must be this “perfect self”, when in reality, there is no “perfect self” and the self that you are is just enough. There are no set guidelines to follow. Be yourself and that should be enough, and if people do not appreciate you for who you are, you do not need them in your life.
“If other people’s opinions of you are more important to you than your own... then how can you expect to live a life that’s true to you? How can you expect to ever stop worrying about what other people think of you? How will you ever feel free?”
No matter what you do, there are always going to be people who will judge you. Unfortunately, there is no escaping that. But, on the bright side, there will also be people who will support you for who you are, what you do/believe/love etc. Find those people, and hold them close!
I put “quirky” and “normal” and all other similar adjectives in quotations because I personally do not believe theses tags should be used to describe peoples interests. The idea of a “normal” person, in my opinion, does not exist, either. There are no “weird” things a person can be interested in.
“People will think whatever they think regardless of what you do. Don’t be afraid of your emotions. Whatever you decide, you don’t owe people a thing.”