Daydreaming is something I do a lot. I'm usually in my own world rather than the real world. There is something nice about being somewhere our society isn't, flooding my thoughts with "what if" and unreachable expectations of where I need to be in my life.

It truly is hard being a teenager in our current society; the judgment of our own peers, the expectation that we need to finish our classes with acceptable grades, good health, and a good mentality, not to mention our generation's continuous thoughts of sadness and not being good enough that always fill our minds, cause a domino effect of "not being good enough" thoughts. It truly upsets me when I scroll through social media and see the same people I pass by in the halls talking about how much they hate life and just want to be gone.

This is why I like to zone out every now and then; I can be in my own world where what we do as teenagers doesn't predict the rest of our lives, where the girl with colored hair can roam the halls with her head up high instead of a hoodie covering her bright hair after someone made a snarky comment. It's a place where people are not proud to be a bitch and don't take pride in breaking down other people's self-esteem. It's a world where the kid behind me in math isn't ruining his entire life just because he's being a careless teen now, and teachers understand that he might have come to school with no food to fill him up.

The unfortunate truth is that I need to zone back in after a while. I need to come back to reality and resume life, surrounded by self-deprecating jokes and my peers struggling to get good grades to make everyone back home proud; I must resume knowing that I can go home and be overwhelmed by the thought of what I should eat tonight because there are too many choices, but another kid of same age and same needs goes home to the same usual option of possibly nothing and is grateful for anything at all.

Daydreaming is fun, because I get to escape for a while, and the more I do it, the more it seems like reality, but the truth is that reality is harsh, and scary, and stressful. I need to accept that because I'm going to be here for long time, living in this harsh, scary, and stressful reality. Although daydreaming allows me to escape, at the end of the day, I'm living in reality, not my dreams.