Don't Be An Idiot

I often wonder how other people see me. Like, when you listen to your voice after it's been recorded and you realize how goofy you sound. I have days where I'm the most beautiful person alive, and then I have days where I want to hide under a bridge like the ugly troll I am.

I was talking to my mother about what a fool I'd made out of myself in front of a boy I had a crush on, and she told me something that changed my whole perspective on life. "Honey," she said, "he might be a big part of your life, but you're not a big part of his. He doesn't see you as this big weirdo. He just sees you as a little weirdo."

I was appalled, but I understood the point she was making. You can never really understand what someone else thinks of you, and oftentimes it's better than you think. I have a friend who recently told me how she struggled with self-esteem and mental illnesses. I never would've guessed in a million years. She was the friend who was always smiling, always made me laugh, always had something nice to say. She was the most bubbly, sociable person in the world, and I couldn't imagine how she saw herself as anything less than that.

I'm going to stop right here because I can tell I'm already getting sorta sappy, but let me leave you folks with this song by one of my music idols, Frank Turner. It is appropriately entitled Reasons Not To Be An Idiot. The first line goes like this:

YOU'RE NOT AS MESSED UP AS YOU THINK YOU ARE! YOUR SELF-ABSORPTION MAKES YOU MESSIER!

Happy listening!