Throughout one's life, most people are searching for their sense of “ self “ The universal definition for self  is 
Self -
noun: self; plural noun: selves a person's essential being that distinguishes them from others, especially considered as the object of introspection or reflexive action.
-a person's particular nature or personality; the qualities that make a person individual or unique.
-one's own interests or pleasure.

Something I've seen with myself and friends is that we often question our sense of self or try to change to fit in with other people. We all think that we have to be this thing society has set in our minds about how to be, for example, a man must be masculine, like sports, have short hair and a girl must be feminine, wear dresses, love pink. You see where I'm going with this? We all think we have to meet these standards to be accepted by Society… I and many others think otherwise. I believe in being Yourself and accepting you for you! I think this is such an important belief that hopefully we all agree on. So many people don't accept themselves and this leads to many unfortunate things! Suicide, Depression, Anxiety, and, sadly, much more. With this topic, hopefully, many people can relate, We all have our stories, but today I'm going to be telling you some of mine and those of others that relate to my belief.

Not only have I seen the struggle of finding my sense of self  in myself, I’ve seen it within others, like my friends. So pretty much always they're those people at school or wherever else this may occur that are “The cool kids” Ya know? Well, last year at my old school there was this group called the “Popular group”. I had no interest in joining this group and I thought that was the same with my closest friends. Sadly that didn't turn out to be true. It was the start of the year, Probably the second month of school when one day my best friends ( Let's not name names ) “ Fernanda”. Picture this a hippie girl, raggedy hair, diy tie-dyes, vegan, appeared like she was straight out of the Haight in SF, came to school dressed very differently than before, She was wearing a white tight fitted Abercrombie shirt, light wash extreme skinny jeans and white converse. Her hair was also tied up which she never did. I thought “ hmm.. maybe she's just changing it up? “, So it didn't bother me. We continued on with our day, but then at lunch she got a compliment on her jeans by someone in this “ Popular group “ then was asked if she wanted to sit with them.” This is when I got worried..” Now I'm thinking “ What is this a movie ??” but I didn't care to think this was a 1-time thing. To cut this story in half, she continued to do this until one night we were texting and she started to talk about how confused she was about herself. We talked how maybe she was having a midlife… middle school crisis? After our long talk, She set herself on the path of finding herself again… The tie dyes back and she feels amazing  ;).   

At the start of this year, I was seriously nervous about coming to High School so I thought maybe if I dressed somewhat minimalistic and basic and not me at all I could lay low and get through freshman year. After that first day, I was feeling like a different human… Not in a good way. I felt shy, not confident, lame and just not me! So I decided the next day I would be myself, wear what I want to like wearing the clothes of the person I aspire to be  and act like how I truly am. It felt so dang good. It was like cloud-9, breathing fresh air, I was feeling so much more confident, outgoing, happy and I felt like myself and that feeling is amazing! You get an amazing feeling being you and it's priceless. I realize that taking who I am on the inside and showing on the outside opened doors to friendships that were much more meaningful in my life! I hope everyone can feel that feeling!

One thing that is better than ever right now is coming out and through this people are being themselves which is amazing. Although I am not one of those people I know others who have. They are accepting themselves and probably feel so good to have it out there and it not be holding in them and eating them away. During middle school, I had a friend who was a girl. She was struggling with depression, anxiety and just generally not feeling herself. She was one of my best friends. We were really close and she told me how she felt as if she was born into the wrong body, She felt as if she had to put a mask on every day of her life. Not until the end of 8th grade she knew that she wasn't a she. They had been struggling with this forever and when they came out about how they wanted to be male  they make now they felt so good. Being able to look how they wanted and everything they said it was like holding a mountain and when they came out the mountain vanished!

So hopefully after reading this maybe you have changed your belief!  I believe in being Yourself and accepting you for you! Now if you're feeling like you don't know yourself or if you're not accepting of yourself and you want to wear that one's men's t-shirt, but you think you have to wear a dress, DO IT! Be you and don't let anyone tell you otherwise! A lot of people just need to be themselves and accept themselves! Be-you-tiful :)