A common thing among teenagers is to be a “people pleaser”. If you were to ask me, which you definitely didn’t, but I’ll tell you anyway, people pleasing is the most stupid thing ever. I do know that it’s a natural human urge to do things according to others’ liking so that you can be liked, but I’ve come to realize that it is crucial to put yourself first.

Everything brings me to my main question: If you live to please and make others happy? Who’s caring about you? I mean, who cares if someone thinks you’re a weirdo? Like genuinely. Yeah, that can be degrading, especially at a young age. But ask yourself this- would you rather be a weirdo to someone while learning how to love yourself despite the backlash? Or be a “normal” person to others and hate yourself?

I cannot stress this enough: if I haven’t repeated it 1,000 times already in different fonts, that NO PERSON is EVER worth losing yourself for. 10 years from now, the “popular” kids aren’t gonna remember the times you wore leggings every day instead of the baggy jeans you wanted because you didn’t want to get looked at as different. EVERYONE IS DIFFERENT.

Maybe a controversial topic, but despite the numerous debates among people about who or why we were put on this earth, I confidently know that no matter what the earth, or even we, humans, were created for, it wasn’t so that we could all be the SAME. If that was our purpose, that would come naturally; we wouldn’t even have to worry about hiding our personalities to please people. However, it’s not. We are all different for a REASON.

The real catch is, if we were all the same, how would the world work? Theres not different people with their own personalized talents that help the economy. If certain people weren’t born with different talents and gifts, for example, technology, who would be there to fix our phones? Being into technology is often seen as “geeky”, but at the end of the day, if that person stays confident in who they are, then one day the same people calling them a “geek” would be going on their 10th year as an employee at McDonald’s, while the so-called “geek” is a great CEO of a manufacturing company.

I’m not trying to be insensitive to the fact that many people still find themselves doing what others want to make them happy. And in some cases, you should do that in fact, but when it comes to things about yourself. Don’t change it for others. No one’s gonna remember outside of these four walls. Let’s be real, who’s gonna go home, lie in their bed, and think about the things that others have changed about themselves? 9 times out of 10, no one even realizes how much you’re putting yourself out there, which is another reason why you should ask yourself why are you doing it? No one knows how much it hurts to keep your true self caged like a rabid animal. No one’s gonna sympathize with you.

At the end of the day, when you wake up and go to sleep, you are in the same body. In fact, no one else has to live in your body but you. So doing things that contradict everything you stand for or like doesn’t impact anyone but you. You are gonna be the one regretting not wearing those jeans, not the group of people that you wore leggings to fit in with. You’re the one who’s gonna hold yourself back in your gift for technology, trying to pretend that it’s not there.

Because if you change yourself to fit in with people? Then do those people really like you? Or just who they think you are? It’s never worth it. Just be yourself, and with time, you will find people who click with you perfectly, and you don’t have to worry about maintaining an image that’s not you. Because those people actually like YOU.