Society and reality
Posted by John on November 17, 2007
Listen, Child. This is the most important thing I will tell you. Listen carefully:
Society is not real.
Literally. It is not real. All of those problems and people on TV? They are not real. Your life is not like theirs, nor should it be. You don’t have to have sex like they do. You don’t have to kiss like they do. You don’t have to love your family like they do. You don’t have to be straight like they are.
Your friends? They’re not real either. You don’t have to get married like they are, or sleep with boys like they do. You don’t have to read as many books, or paint pictures as well as them, or like the same music as them. You don’t have to go to church like them, or sing like them, or drink wine like they do.
Child, the rest of those pressures, those impressions and feelings you get from everybody else around you, they’re fake, too. You don’t have to follow the law. You don’t have to believe in god. You don’t have to drive a car. You don’t have to wear makeup, or wear matching socks.
The only thing that’s real, Child, is you. You will always and forever have to answer to yourself. You can let your parents down, you can let your teacher down, you can let your country down, and you’ll be just fine. But you can never let yourself down and get away with it.
Child, you don’t have to be thin, goth, punk, cute, indy, valley, emo, geeky, hip-hop, or east-coast. But you do have to be yourself. Always and forever. You’ll never let yourself get away with being something you’re not.
