Being 'different'

Today's post is going to be about something which I know a lot of people will be able to relate to, this is mainly going to focus around the idea of being different or maybe having the feeling that you aren't stereotypically 'normal'.

Growing up I felt like I was an outsider in many different aspects. This was particularly around my family as I was extremely introverted and shy but also around friends and even strangers. This made socialising very hard for me as I would always have that voice in my head which told em I wasn't good enough and that I should stop talking or even not say a word as I was going to 'embarrass' myself. I feel like many of these fears of mine did develop from a young age as I mentioned previously with my ex-father, however I was just a genuinely shy kid. Being introverted was very difficult as I remember being 13 years old in high school and not knowing my place, I was short, awkward and so difficult to talk to, yet this is something I was always made to feel bad about. Again, some of you will be able to relate to this, relatives, friends and even teachers would make passive aggressive comments about how I wouldn't want to speak and I'm sure they wanted to help yet it made this worse. I felt inferior to other people. As I was shy and barely spoke, this made me an easy target for bullies and this sometimes even meant that my so called friends would be the ones hurdling abuse at me. Sure I didn't have it that bad, I mean I was called hurtful names and spoken to like crap, but it could have been a lot worse.

When I turned 16 I went to college, I wasn't nervous. I was actually excited to be around completely new people. And for the first time in a very long time I could say I was really happy. You see, college was my best 2 years of being a teenager, I met the most amazing people who accepted me for my quirks and helped me grow as a person and I am forever grateful for that. However, I have to take some credit myself, I remember going into my college on my first day and saying to myself that I was going to put myself out there, and I did. If I didn't throw myself in the deep end I could have never developed into the person I am today and that is honestly scary.

You see, the thing is the only person that can help you is yourself. You can tell yourself whatever you want to help you sleep better at night.. but you won't achieve what you admire unless you try. You won't be popular (not that it's important) if you don't actively make an effort to ne vocal and nice, you won't get that promotion unless you go above and beyond for your job, you won't get them amazing abs if you skip out on the gym constantly. All you have to do is be willing to take a chance, so I'm going to challenge you. When you read this I want you to plan on doing something that is completely out of your comfort zone, it doesn't have to be anything extreme like jumping out of a plane or marrying a random dude, it can be as simple as talking to a stranger. I want you to set yourself a challenge and comment below how you felt after you achieved it! You can be scared about a lot of things, trust me I know first hand that life is scary, but I also know that doing everything I did which was uncomfortable at first has made me into the person I am today and I wouldn't change myself for anything. You got this.

YOU are the key to success.