Acerca de

If you are a bit like me, introducing yourself must have always been weird because you know yourself way too much that you don't know where to begin. 

 

Hi, I may or may not have an existential crisis trying to talk about myself. When you are in elementary school, saying things like "I love the color black and enjoy eating shawarma and cakes" was a part of your introduction. Life was simple back then, the good ol’ times. All that seemed to matter was coloring within the lines, eating lunch during class so you could play during recess, and showing up dressed neatly to assemblies. In secondary school, we had to alter our sentences to fit our new interests. 

 

There was this counterculture where you need something in common to be friends with someone. After all, it was the era of the mannequin challenge, beating yourself up over flappy bird, doing the stanky leg, and protecting your geometry box (people frequently misplaced their instruments only to 'borrow' from others).  

 

When you graduate, it's a whole new story. "Hi, my name is (hopefully something interesting so it acts as an icebreaker), and I am pursuing..." Nobody cares what you major in. As social media dominates and leads conversations, we have managed to trap ourselves in this toxic echo chamber of competition and productivity. 

 

We have been conditioned into being the best to a point where we face fear, guilt, and angst for being ourselves. The constant feeling of being a failure when your performance does not match the prediction reflects the perpetual cycle of a flawed social construct. This thought process of correlating your self-worth to your accomplishments is a grievance that needs to be addressed. 

 

We do not come out of the womb thinking, "I need to pass with distinction and get a job by my twenties." It is not our mission to tick off the mile-long insane checklist of being perfect. We come into the world with a heart so full of joy and love. Joy, and love, that is meant to celebrate life and yourself. 

 

Whatever it is that you achieve today or tomorrow, don't forget to recognize that you are trying your best. Forgive yourself if you don't match your expectations. You should feel worthy, fulfilled, and in control because, in this life, you dictate the rules. So, chuck the norms. Or in the terms more familiar to Gen-Z, YOLO!