be yourself.

These days I think it's too easy to think we have to change.

People are coming at us in all directions telling us how we should look (thinner, taller, sleeker), how we should eat (paleo, vegetarian, no dairy, no carbs, low carbs, high protein, organic only), who we should date (or who we shouldn't), when we should get married (because if you're single at 25 what the hell is wrong with you?), how much we should work out (a kazillion hours each week) and how we should think (like me, duh).

I'm not sure if it has always been like this, but somehow I feel like social media has made it easier for this to happen. We see people in relationships or having children or losing weight on Facebook and Twitter and we see pictures of too-skinny women on Pinterest and Tumblr (and they are labeled "healthy" and "thin-spiration" and shit like that). We see what other people are doing and we think it should be us.

But why?

i am okay with being a little silly sometimes.

Are any of us really happier when we are comparing ourselves to someone else? Should I feel bad about my life because I don't have a boyfriend or a husband or a child or a house or even a dog? Should I be super bummed out because I don't look like a girl in some picture online that someone else has labeled as "the healthy body" - especially when there's no way my body composition would allow for me to look that way? Am I going to feel smarter if I think like someone else thinks, instead of having my own opinion?

The only time I think it's appropriate to emulate someone is if that person is proving you can be who you are, and that it's okay to be you.

We're all unique, and we all have our own interests and quirks and abilities and strengths. Instead of comparing ourselves to someone who we think is better, why don't we just try to be our own best self? We don't have to fit a cookie-cutter mold to be successful in our relationships, our careers or in society. I am different from you, and you are different from everyone else.

It seems like we've forgotten the lessons we once learned on Sesame Street and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. It seems like we've gotten so caught up in what others are doing that we've forgotten that it's okay if we don't look and dress and act and think like everyone else. And we've also forgotten what it's like to respect the differences of others. Just because someone looks or acts or thinks differently from you doesn't mean he or she is a bad person. Maybe instead of putting people down we should respect what makes us different, and learn from it.

Maybe this is more for me than for you. Maybe I am just realizing that it's okay to be me, instead of who somebody else thinks I should be, and I just thought you should know. But I think we've got to stop comparing ourselves to others and learn to truly be happy in our own skin.

"It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are."  -- e.e. cummings