Imagine a world where everyone is the same: thinks the same, wears the same clothes, follows the same trends. It's boring. So much of school is full of pressure to "be different" like "everyone else". You end up learning that there are apparently acceptable ways to be different, but anything that's too different isn't cool.
Once you get out of school, you realize the same stigmas exist on a wider scale. Really, school is just the beginning of society telling you to fit into a cookie-cutter image that random people have decided is the "right" image. By the time most of us figure that out, it's difficult to do your own thing. Sometimes you don't even know what your "own" thing is, because you've been too busy trying to be society's idea of acceptable or cool.
Hopefully you can learn from my experiences. Enjoy yourself. Nobody is normal. Normal is just something society makes up to tell us we should all be the same, because for some reason being different is scary to society. Who cares if you have funky colored hair, wear black, have tattoos, wear old style vintage clothes, or whatever? Some people will care, but it's only because they are reinforcing what society tells them is cool. It's in our media all the time. Perhaps those marketing executives are setting the tone for society, and what society thinks is "normal".
Don't waste too many minutes or years worrying about what "society" thinks. Be you. You're an original, so why would you want to be smooshed into a cookie-cutter mold so you can be just like everyone else? That's lame. Embrace who you are, it's not something to worry about. It's just you, being you. When you're okay with you, surprisingly everyone else will get used to it as well. Most people will take their cue from you. Ever seen someone who was totally cool with themselves who cared what others thought of them? They don't usually get made fun of after people realize they're happily doing their own thing and they don't care what others think. I'm not going to pretend that it's easy to stick to what you like or want to do. There's still that big old pressure from society, and we feel it so keenly in school especially. I'm just saying that it's worth the feeling of freedom to embrace yourself instead of being ashamed of yourself for being different. Thank goodness some people are different. They make life interesting!
P.S. Sometimes you have to tell yourself you don't care what other people think, even if you do care. If you keep telling yourself, eventually you'll start to believe it, if only a teensy bit. You deserve to love yourself, to embrace your uniqueness. You are epic!
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