The process of growing up can be a long and hard process full of lots of realizations.
It's always surprising to learn something knew about yourself, a close friend or family member, or in my case, the human race. I'm sure I learned a lot about life as a kid, but recently, I've had more realizations than ever before.
In the past few years, I've learned a lot about myself and what makes me happy. A lot of this happens to do with how I think of myself and how I treat myself. I'm now aware of the fact that I need to love and respect myself in order to be loved and respected back. In the past, I've been treated badly by friends and even some boys, and I never understood why. In the end, I mostly blamed myself. I've come to the conclusion that if someone doesn't respect me and treat me nicely, they don't deserve to be in my life. I now love and respect myself enough to know the difference between attention and love/respect. I realized that I deserve more than attention when it's convenient. I deserve the world (and so do you).
Along with my self-realization, I have also figured out the kind of people I want to surround myself with. I used to go along with the flow and just hang out with anyone my friends were hanging out with, and to be honest, I sometimes still do that. These people are not always friendly, and sometimes even a bit rude, but that is a part of life. If I am around these types of people, I'm not very happy, and why would I want to waste my time not being happy? I've realized that I'm happiest when I'm surrounded by people who have similar aspirations as me, even if that can't always be the case.
Which brings me to my next point: not everyone will have the same opinions and views as myself. I never really paid much attention to what was going on in this world or in our country until very recently. In history class, I learned about slavery, the Women's Rights Movement, the Civil Rights Movement, the Holocaust, etc., but I just figured everything was fixed after that. I was very wrong. I have very strong opinions about these subjects, and I've realized that many people won't always agree with me, but that's okay. I'll come across people who don't think racism or sexism even exist in our country, and as much as I would like to argue with them, I know nothing I say will change their minds, and I just have to accept that.
That doesn't mean I won't still try to change the world for the better. Although I am just one person, and it's so cliche to say I would like to change the world, I like to think that my voice will somehow be heard eventually. I've realized that my voice truly matters, and that is the best realization of them all.
