They Say ‘Be Yourself!’*
People don’t like weird.
They say to ‘be yourself’ — and it sounds good. Except… what they too often mean is be yourself like this.
Not like that! Don’t be yourself like that.
Be our version of what ‘yourself’ is.
Conform to one of several non-conformity starter packs.
‘Be unique!’ — the same way as everybody else.
(They somehow don’t see the irony in presenting you with a set list of conventions, labelled with words like ‘different,’ or ‘individual’…)
I can’t be someone I’m not.
I have tried, at so many different points in my life, to ‘fit in.’
It doesn’t work, it just hurts.
Not having a lot of people who like you, not fitting in, hurts too; but they never liked you to begin with. They liked their idea of you.
And trying to be someone you’re not is a harsher rejection than the ones other people can inflict.
Writing prompt from the rebellious Ravyne Hawke:
“When she transformed into a butterfly, the caterpillars spoke not of her beauty, but of her weirdness. They wanted her to change back into what she always had been. But…