To Fit-in or Stick-out?

Is it more valuable for people to fit in than to be unique and different?

Today, especially with the heavy influence of the media, people feel the desire to fit in with the rest of society by dressing a certain way or acting a certain way. However there are also instances where we are encouraged to be our own individual person. I find it quite ironic how the pressures of society often restrain us from being unique and different individuals. For example girls are often pressured into looking like the top model on the cover of the latest vogue magazine. This goal is an impossible one to achieve, yet so many young teenage girls waste their time trying to achieve a similar look. In a school setting there is even more pressure to fit in. The idea of being your own person seems to get lost in all the different clicks present in school because if you don’t act a certain way you are often not accepted. I find myself guilty of trying to fit in by dressing in a certain way, acting a certain way, and presenting myself a certain way and I will admit that there have been incidents where I try to fit in order to gain acceptance.

Why do people try to always fit in? and why is being different and unique not often accepted by society and our peers? I think as human beings we often try to fit in because we fear of what will happen if we don’t. I often fear being rejected so fitting in often seems to be the easier and safer route. However, the more I think about it the more I feel I should take the risk of branching off and being my own individual person. I think in this context the word “different” is often assumed to be synonymous with weird, or strange. However, this is not true. The word different is this context means special, unique, and an individual. The reason I think many people, like myself, are hesitant to be unique and different is that there is still the fear of not being accepted by peers.

Despite what I often practice I feel it is more important to be unique and different. This is because if you spend your entire life trying to be someone you are not it is a waste of time. Life is about finding yourself and what makes you, you. Who sets the standards we all try to live up to anyway? Who tells us what is considered “cool” and who determines what is “different”? I think it is important that we all seek to be different individuals. I think it is important that we recognize the importance of finding yourself. Instead of wasting time trying to fit in we should put that energy into developing our own individual character by searching ourselves for out unique and special traits.