The Philosophy of You

Chapter 4

It had been a week since the first meeting. I was upset to say the least. I knew I shouldn't feel like this but I did. Is that such a bad thing? I had several assignments to work on which for the first time, I was actually thankful for. At least, I had things to distract myself from the way I actually felt. I had seen him several times since then but he paid no attention to me. He probably didn't even remember who I was. 

Regardless, I had things I had to work on. I had gotten through my upcoming movies article but was stuck on the self love one. Truth is, I needed the self love one to be a real kick to the stomach, so to speak. It was for my major summative for anthropology where I had to raise awareness of an issue and the topic I chose was self esteem and mental health. I figure that writing about the topic and publishing it in the newspaper was a good way to raise awareness. I wasn't going to be wrong about that, that's for sure. 

I sat on the benches of the third floor, with a blank page. I had been sitting there for nearly half an hour without even knowing what to write about. How could I write an article on self love when I didn't practice any methods of self care. It's true, the past year as been a rough patch of my life. I was having a hard time finding reasons to live, I felt alone. It wasn't until July that I had found my reason: Smaug, who was my leopard gecko. I knew that no matter how terrible I felt, I had to continue to live in order to care for Smaug cause who else would. 

I tried thinking of lessons I had learnt that might help me write this article. I couldn't think of anything. I had always been what everyone else expected of me and not my own being. Maybe that's why I've run into so many problems. That's it! I was now learning who I was without everyone else, why don't I write from my own perspective, talking about how becoming a mirror image of someone else is self-destructive. 

I began scribbling away. It felt like a weight was being lifted off of me as I wrote more. I realized that I needed this. I needed to write all this down, not just to spread the message but let myself heal. Writing was my way of healing, of coming to terms with what's happened and my emotions. 

Within no time, I had come up with a pretty great article, if I do say so myself. I began reading it to myself to catch for wonky sentences and grammar mistakes,

"From a young age, kids are taught that it is okay to be themselves. However little do they know that a big part of who they become is a result of society's influence.

A lot of what people do during their day is the result of their desire for acceptance from others. This could be in the tiny things like how they dress or it could be something like not coming out as a member of the LGBTQ2 community in fear that they won't be accepted by their family. Individuals will often make decisions based off of what their family or culture deems is right, despite their personal beliefs. People decide to follow others' instructions in fear of being alienated for wanting something different.

Society makes it seem like you have to be a certain way to be accepted, this can be represented through the media, traditions, family values, and even religion. But truthfully none of that matters, whatever they may want an individual to be like, to what that individual wants to be is what night is to day. They are two completely opposite things that are connected in one way or another but never intertwine with the other. Society tends to focus on how to make someone better, whether that be through looks or status but it never focuses on the fact that each and every individual on this planet is already enough, they don't need the most recent fashion trends to be accepted nor do they need change themselves for someone else's acceptance because the world today needs more individuals who choose to defy society's norms and choose to stand in the spotlight as themselves, not someone else's recreations of what they could be.