A couple of weeks ago I was doing my daily scroll on Instagram when I came across one of my favorite influencers, Indy Blue. She recognizes herself as the best “bad” influencer because although posting on Instagram is what she does for her job, more than anything it’s for fun and she tries to not let it get to her negatively. She posts what she thinks and feels, and what every other influencer tries to hide… The real stuff, which Indy will openly say and do. Blue has a brand called Lonely Ghost and as an avid customer, I was excited about their newest release. “Caring is Cool” I read across my screen and I freaked out. If there was any line I had to have it was this one. It was a bunch of clothes that represented who I was and made something I have always had a hard time accepting cool and admirable.
Growing up, I always struggled with the concept that I cared too much or that I was too sensitive. My friends would poke fun at me for getting emotional over the most random things like a compliment or seeing somebody else cry or getting a lower test grade than expected. I would always be told that I cared too much and to not take life so seriously, but the thing is, I wasn’t. I wasn’t taking life so seriously, I truly just cared about the way others felt and the way I felt, and I let my emotions show differently than other kids would. I was embarrassed and ashamed for feeling things so strongly.
I think that the statement “she wears her heart on her sleeve” was written about me because whatever I’m feeling everyone in the room will be able to see. It took me a while to realize that the way I was feeling wasn’t wrong or too uptight, but just a natural way for ME to express my emotions. I would rather be able to express that I care rather than not.
Society has painted caring as such a negative thing, describing it as people being too uptight or worrisome, but I find it admirable to those who accept and express that they care about the things in their life. It is a trait that I’m grateful to have, and if you have it, you should too. Never feel ashamed for feeling a certain way towards something because, at the end of the day, the only person’s opinion that should matter to you is your own. This feeling isn’t a burden, and should not be treated like one. If anything, it is a superpower and something special to be able to care about things and people so freely.
I think the best thing in life you can do is to care, specifically about the things that matter to you. Care about the way you treat others and the way they treat you. Care about the way someone talks to you good or bad. Care about how you carry yourself, how well you do in school, showing up early to things, your friends birthdays, the planet, how you make others feel, how you treat yourself, because it is cool to care, and cool to be able to express how you’re feeling.
I think if we all lived like Indy we would all be a lot happier with the way we feel about things and the way we make others feel. As Indy said, “We don’t even realize how much we’re slowing ourselves down by making what’s cool and acceptable fit into the tiniest, most exclusive box. Can we just normalize giving a f*ck? Please?? Let’s even take a step further. Let’s make giving a f*ck, [sic] the coolest thing that you can do. Let’s make THAT the box. Because if I learned anything in 2020, it’s that we need excitement to survive. We need that glimmer of hope to keep us from going insane. Now more than ever, we need that over-the-top excitement for anything we can get.”