Year in review
You can be whoever you want on the Internet. You can post pictures and create a completely unique persona online; you can say things and make everyone think whatever you please. It seems like with such a vast variety of possibilities, we’d have incredibly original characters all over the web, but that’s not true. What I’ve been noticing is that most people - and when I say “most”’, I’m talking about the vast majority - are so eager to fit in, they completely leave their authenticity aside.
There are a few ways you can fit in on the web. The one that annoys me the most is the political way. There are certain politicians you must hate in order to be accepted, so posting negative things about them is a plus. But be very careful when doing so: if your political opinion doesn’t match most of your friends’, it’s a complete disaster. The funny thing about this is that the people who proclaim themselves the most open minded and tolerant will unfollow you the second you say something they disagree. Ironic, right?
This year, another very popular way to fit in on social media was complaining about how much 2016 sucked. Honestly, I think it’s really unlikely that a whole year was so terrible for absolutely everyone. I mean, I know some friends who’ve had a tough year, it’s not that I’m saying you can’t complain. But my brain just doesn’t fathom how 2016 could’ve been so shitty for literally everyone.
Of course I’m not going to post this as my Facebook status, but 2016 was pretty great for me. I’ve made some huge decisions that turned out for the best; I became closer to amazing people and left the ones who’ve wronged me behind. I started taking care of myself a little more, learned a lot of interesting things and went to really fun parties. I graduated from college, traveled with my loving boyfriend, became part of a wonderful family and celebrated my birthday with my closest and most incredible friends at a fancy restaurant.
I’m not saying everyday was like a fairytale. There were some moments when I doubted myself, when I felt like I wasn’t smart enough, or pretty enough. There were days when all I wanted was for someone else to make all the decisions, because I was too stressed to make them myself. Every now and again I will feel like a complete failure, to just wake up full of confidence on the next day. And that’s not just 2016, that’s life.
I’m part of a very spoiled generation that is capable of throwing a whole year on the trash just because not everything went according to planned. When even the silliest things don’t go according to our plans, we tend to feel awful. I’m part of this generation and no, I don’t think I’m a special snowflake who knows how to deal with every single aspect of my life. I have already cried because they didn’t have a shoe my size, so yeah. But just because we were raised a certain way, it doesn’t mean we can’t reflect upon our way to see the world and try to make it more responsible, reasonable and authentic.