THE PRESSURE OF BEING PERFECT

In today’s day and age, I feel like there is this extra pressure to be quote-unquote perfect. You need to have the perfect outfit, makeup, hair, bag, shoes, etc. You might also feel like you need to have straight A’s. You feel like you need these things just to fit in. That isn’t the case. There is this pressure from social media that is put on us to look like these famous people. We feel like if we look like famous influencers, we will be rich and famous like them. We also have academic pressure. We feel like if we don’t get perfect grades, we won’t get into the schools we want or get the job we want. That isn’t the way to life. If you are constantly searching for a perfect life, you will never be satisfied and always stressed.   

Why Being Perfect Is Fake 

When you look on social media and see your favorite celebrities, you might think that they are so gorgeous and have nothing wrong with them. Yes they are gorgeous, but they are highly edited photos and they have the best makeup artist with the best surgeons working on them. That isn’t reality for most of us. Society worships people that look the part, but most of the time they aren’t good people. A “perfect” person is when you are an all-around good person. Good-looking, kind, generous, thoughtful, etc. It is also so hard to always get A’s. Sometimes you will be put in a class where the professor is so uptight, or you just don’t understand the content. That is normal, and the case for most people. Most people don’t always get an A on every test and assignment. That is so hard to achieve. We all make mistakes, and that is what makes us human. Mistakes are normal. If anything, making mistakes is closer to perfection than making none. What makes you a good person is learning from the mistakes. 

Normalizing Imperfections 

As a society, we need to start normalizing imperfections. People, including myself, feel so insecure over things about ourselves that are normal and out of our control. For example, acne. That is something so many people struggle with. It is out of their control, and yet they get bullied for it because they don’t have clear skin. Somehow, clear skin is okay, but acne makes you ugly. That’s where we need to normalize imperfection. We also need to lower the academic pressure. Yes, there should be colleges like Harvard, but for people not striving to go to those, what’s the point of having so much pressure on us? Specifically in high school. I can remember having so much pressure to get the perfect grades to get into the honor societies because my school pushed those things. Guess what, they don’t matter. If you want those things, good, but don’t stress yourself out because you feel like you need it to look perfect.  

How To Handle The Pressure 

Now the real question is: how do we handle the pressure? There are a few ways. Take social media breaks. You can delete the app for a week and then see how you learn to cope. You can expose yourself to make mistakes on purpose, so you know what to do when a mistake happens unplanned. You can also find people who struggle with the same feelings and talk about it together. When you talk about it with others, it helps you find perspectives you didn’t think of before.    

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