This is gonna take so long to type. A six year old just painted my nails. All my friends are older. It’s always been that way. Refusing to befriend teenagers my own age absolutely makes me look like a self-absorbed wedge, and my only defense is that I’ve never been in a situation where I’ve [i]had[/i] to befriend my peers. It’s been a freeform childhood. I gravitated towards the crowd 3 or 4 years above me, and I’ve never been out of place. This is where you come in. Teenagers hurt to be around. I don’t know how hormones can offset a person so drastically that they feel the need to become an unbearable force of disruption. Every conversation must be a competition, every compliment is backhanded, every clique believes themselves to be the prisonyard shankers. It’s the most disappointing warfare ever. Nobody wins by pretending the other side is a bunch of shallow lumps, because you all are. Insecurity and lack of social fluency has lead you to believe you’ve got something to prove, when it’s really not hard to just be a Pleasant Force of Nature. Around the age of 17 things start to mellow out. You almost become human. I got over my “kill the world for not liking me” stage way early. My friends and I show unabashed love and disrespect for each other, and have for the last 4 years. Can we still be mean people? Yes, but the general public is not the enemy, and other children higher up on the imaginary social chain are of no threat to our self-esteem. The modern teenage demographic needs to learn to become individuals. Stop letting mommy dress you. Go out at night instead of doing the homework that isn’t due for a week. There’s life outside your legos, and it isn’t going to eat you. Living by your insecurities and shrinking into walls doesn’t help build the character you need. Treating your peers are competition ruins your chances of creating meaningful bonds in unexpected places. I don’t say all this as an All Knowing Professional Teenage Socialite, but realizing the ridiculous imaginary boundaries we set for ourselves has really helped me ignore them. Girls make snide comments about me, often not knowingly being rude or pointing out things I’m expected to be insecure of, because their self-defense has taught them to search for flaws in others to reinforce their image. Doesn’t matter, because I recognize why they do it, and I know we don’t need to compare ourselves. If there’s something wrong with the way I look, I can change it. If I can’t change it, it’s not wrong. I’m immune to buIIying. This feels great. “You can’t tell me how to live” “I’m happy with my life, I don’t need to go out” “I’m above other people anyways” Sure. Whatever. If you’re truly happy, in control of your insecurities, and living the social life you want, then ignore this post. But if you aren’t, and you’re still about to comment something defiant, I hope this short commentary sticks with you. I hope you remember this next time you’re too scared to try that haircut. I hope my words haunt you when you live the same day over and over again as a perpetual prisoner of your own irrational fears. Individualism is your ticket to freedom. This post does not endorse cowboy cosplaying as a form of personal expression