Obviously, you know yourself better than anyone else. Nobody is allowed in your thoughts but you. Maybe you’re still finding out new hobbies that interest you, or perhaps you’re discovering things that are changing your opinions on the wonderful world around you.
What’s something that interests you? It can be a game, a book, a person, a subject, whatever — it just has to be something that you feel lets you express yourself in a way you aren’t able to elsewhere. Finding something that allows self-expression is freeing and, when it’s something you can share with others, can feel very rewarding.
Unfortunately, many of us teenagers have absolutely no idea who we are just yet.
Teenagers are in that awkward phase where they aren’t adults just yet, but they aren’t children either. They get told off for slacking and messing around and then get told to find extracurriculars and do things that interest them. Many of us have too much on our plates – with our exams that determine the fate of our lives, family that we need to constantly engage with, a social life that could fall apart – and that burden can sometimes feel like an obstacle in the way of finding our true selves.
Teenagers like me keep each of these things separated in ‘bubbles.’ We are free to move between them whenever, but it’s impossible to bring other problems through the walls of the bubble. Personally, I tackle issues as they come up. Yet by doing this, I have realised that it will only end up in me getting overwhelmed and unprepared when these ‘bubbles’ eventually overlap and join together.
Your personality doesn’t depend only on other people; however, it also depends on you staying true to yourself. If you were to change your attitude around different people, you’d struggle to understand which attitude is truly ‘you.’ It’s completely natural to be less educated in a certain topic which your friends are interested in. What’s unnatural is pretending to understand and liking that topic to be liked. After all, it’s easier to play along than to be the odd one out. You can just research that topic later and actually get into it eventually… right?
But just because your friends like it doesn’t necessarily mean you will, too.
Additionally, the Internet has blurred the line between being authentic and aesthetic. Filters on Instagram can make you perceive something differently, which makes you strive to look like that naturally, but there’s a reason why filters exist, and it’s to hide insecurities. That’s why you might feel anxious and try to hide when someone wants to take a picture of you, but you shouldn’t let that insecurity define you.
On the topic of the Internet, so many people show off that they belong to only one type of characteristic – clean girls, TikTok dancers, gym influencers – but the truth is, we are full of contradictions, and none of us belong in a box.
Whether online or offline, people aren’t shallow, so don’t force and lock yourself inside an imaginary box made up by these people to try to fit in and make sense of this wacky world around us. You can like sports and like video games, but hate eating healthy. You can like figure skating and like graffiti, but catch colds easily — it’s what you are passionate about. “Who you are” isn’t defined by fitting in boxes; it’s about creating your own.
It doesn’t even have to make sense – just go wild!
