I used to worry about everything.
I would worry about what people thought of me, what I thought people would think of me, what I wore and the things I did with my life.
I spent so much time thinking about things that didn’t even really matter in the long run.
Part of anxiety is overthinking the smallest things, especially when it comes to actually building up the courage to tell people how you’re feeling.
When I told anyone what was on my mind, I would think about it for so long after.
“Should I have said that? Maybe I should’ve kept that to myself. They probably didn’t even care, why did you tell them?”
Expressing yourself without worrying about embarrassment is such a big fear, and I still don’t understand why I would have that fear or still sometimes do.
The truth is this: it really doesn’t matter and nothing is ever ‘that deep.’
I feel as though social media has had such a bad effect on the way kids, teenagers and young adults view themselves. That’s why it’s sometimes hard to open up to parents about the things we worry about because they genuinely just didn’t worry about some of the things we do when they were our age.
So many people have trouble opening up to their parents, especially about their mental health, because those “problems” weren’t really acknowledged when they were younger.
Obviously, everybody’s feelings and thoughts are always valid, but sometimes we worry about some things just because society tells us there is a certain way to live the “perfect life” and we try to follow that.
Lately, I’ve been living by the statement “We live on a floating rock” because well, it’s true.
We live on a floating rock in the middle of the universe and if we stand at the end of the universe, the Earth looks so small. But, what’s even smaller from that great distance is our worries and fears.
We, as a society and as Gen Z, focus too much on what social media platforms want us to be instead of focusing on how we want to grow on our own and create unique lifestyles for ourselves.
A big part of being a human is forming our own personalities, and social media makes it harder for us to do that because let’s be honest, we all get sucked into what’s currently cool and trending sometimes.
It can be fun, but it also makes us worry so much that if we don’t follow these trends, we won’t be cool and we’ll be judged by society. But honestly, it doesn’t matter.
So next time you want to talk to your crush, tell your friends how you’re feeling or even just wear a certain outfit to school, just do it. Because nothing matters that bad, so you might as well just be your most authentic self!