On conformity.

Take a look at the picture, and tell me it doesn't speak volumes.

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about the whole "non-conformist" thing. I've been meaning to write this post for a minute now, and I think that after the pretty interesting conversation a couple friends and I had earlier in the car concerning conformity, now is a pretty good time to do so.

This generation seems to be all about non-conformity, bashing those who "follow" and every once in a while, trying too hard to be something they're not in order to be "different." Personally, I think that it's all another fucked up way to mess with people's heads and confuse a group of people that are already struggling to truly find themselves. It's all a paradox -- what with everyone stressing the fact that they're different, doesn't that make them all the same? Everyone thinks that they're so much different than the next guy, when in reality, the simple fact that they're trying so hard to stand out is what's making them blend right in -- right with the conforming non-conformists.

My opinion? Don't try so hard. Just do you. Figure out what truly makes you happy, and go for it. Don't try so hard to fit in, and don't try so hard to stand out. Don't be afraid to do something because no one else is doing it. At the same time, don't do something just because everyone else is doing it. With all the influences that come with being a teenager and from the media, it can be hard to form your own opinions and ideas, and it's only natural that it influences you to some extent. Everyone gets their ideas from somewhere, whether they're ideas that everyone seems to have, or ideas that seem to be different than everyone else's. Just make sure that the decisions you make are for you, not to prove a point to other people -- whether it's that you're completely different than everyone else, or that you're completely the same.

Growing up and finding yourself can be frustrating. It's confusing, I know. People are so quick to judge you for the simplest things, and everyone is way more concerned with what other people are doing than they should be. I may be different, or I may not -- I'm not really trying too hard to establish that. I just wanna be me. That, I know I can be.