Independence

Life is not a game, neither a fairytale. It is for real. For instance, getting dumped into a trashcan freshman year or your “friends” telling you how you need to calm down and stop being you. To stop being embarrassing. Life is serious. For example, not wanting to do anything for hours not because you’re lazy but due to the fact you are emotionally done. Spent. Over. Finished.

I’m not saying forget everything your parents told you and kill yourself. I’m trying to explain that life is a challenge and that your next step is not always up to you, but on how much exposure you get from others. You can fool yourself and pretend that you are the ruler of your destiny. Unfortunately, it is not true. Others will always have an influence on your life. It all depends on your ultimate goal in life.

Our purpose is what society determines, thus the status quo. I believe that life is not up to us. I believe that shame and embarrassment are influences, from outside forces, that are exaggerated in our minds. It is up to us to find our own independence or at least we can try and hopefully succeed.

I entered high school with a mind of innocence and expecting the commercialized high school and Wildcat dream. I am now well into my senior year and realize the effect of all those around me. Entering freshman year the dream was to play varsity ball and make it to the NBA however others told me my short stature at the time (4’2

“) was not going to get me anywhere any time soon. Their thoughts influenced my decisions and I ended my dream there.

When you are in elementary you are told that if you put your mind to anything that you would be able to achieve anything. The basis of the statement is simple if you believe it then it can actually happen. The statement is true to an extent. If you believe a cow could fly, then could a cow fly? The statement also doesn’t count outside influences such as peer pressure, media, and many other factors you could count in. Especially media and peer pressure, causing us to change our ways of thinking, habits, and how we perceive different things.

I believe it is up to the individual to not let the negative influences of society affect them. Society is an endless cycle of negativity that makes our mind weak and succumb to the outside pressure and we then become a puppet to others and will not be able to do any other things by our own power but on reliance on others. I believe we can find our own independence without the influence of others.