Everyone has been held to higher expectations than they thought they could reach (and if you say you haven't, then you're lying to yourself). Everyone, at some point in their life, has been put to a task that did more than just get their feet wet—it completely drowned them. You can also set your own high expectations of people, jobs, activities and places.

I have felt like everything I do is because of high expectations. In high school, I pushed myself to be on the honor roll or high honor roll. I ended up graduating with honors. Then, when I got to college, I had to do my absolute best, which got me on the Dean's List three semesters in a row. It was great for a while. Sometimes, though, you feel like your aren't doing well, and then you're letting those closest to you down—those who supported you and knew what great things you could do if you put your mind to it. My grandma always told me I could do anything. I tried, just for her. I feel like I can never let her down, but at the same time, I feel that I have been doing a lot of that lately. She's my rock, and I owe everything I have accomplished to her, but lately I've started to realize a difference, and after having everything planned out its a little nerve wracking.

Now some of you probably just have high expectations for yourself—something in your past has pushed you to do better so you wouldn't follow in someone's dirty footprints. That's fantastic. You should always want to better yourself, no matter what the reason is. Don't want to end up like either of your parents? Cool—just don't forget that they still are your parents, no matter what mistakes they made. Don't want to end up like some of your friends that you've seen fall down through the years? That's good too—just don't ever let them drag you down. It might not even be about you, though. Your high expectations can be for other people. You could expect people to do things that aren't exactly a part of human nature anymore, but because you might do it, you think everyone else should be able to as well.

The point of me writing all this is because I want you to understand one thing: it's all about you. When I say that, I mean it is your choice. You need to be who you want to be and do what you want to do. Stay true to yourself and your goals and your expectations, not anyone else's. It saves you on stress and heartbreak if you don't try to fulfill someone's expectations.

Lately, I feel like I have been dropping the ball a lot with what I thought I'd set out to do, but then I started to realize, as great as those goals were, I was doing them for other people instead of myself. Even though I know I can do those things if I really try, I also know I am only human and I have other priorities that will make me just as happy. I'm not going to lie—I find that I have weird expectations for myself, and weird goals that I want to reach. It's not all exactly something that my family understands or wants me to focus on but, to me, it's important.

You just need to stay true to who you are and focus on the expectations that you have set for yourself. That's the only way to be truly happy and to make sure you don't overexert yourself. You don't want to start giving yourself bad anxiety trying to fulfill expectations others have set for you. It's not who you are and it's not safe for you. As great as it is to have high expectations and to want to fulfill them, you also need to realize when something might be to much for you at that time. Take it one step at a time instead of just shooting for the stars and ended up crashing down.

Don't let anyone tell you what you need to do or who you need to be.