Who can relate?

“It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.”

One phrase I used to repeat all the time:

NOBODY GETS ME.

I never thought anybody would ever understand why I do what I do. 

I didn’t think anyone would ever be able to fully grasp what goes on inside my brain. And honestly, they shouldn’t be able to. What goes on inside your own brain is completely unique to what goes on in anyone else’s

Once it dawned on me that each person’s thoughts are completely unlike anyone else’s, I began to accept that people might not fully understand me.

But with this, I realized that I control how much people are able to understand me.

Rather than continuing to give up on making close connections with people because nobody would get me, I started sharing what I care about and seeing who would follow. In reality, the people who would follow are the people I would want to follow anyway. 

Why would I wanna spend time around a bunch of people who don’t relate?

Bringing this mindset into my daily life allowed me to surround myself with people I actually wanted to be around. People who shared my beliefs, values, opinions, ideas, thoughts. It all started coming together.

I realized that it was okay to unapologetically be myself. There is no reason to be sorry for the way I am. As I showed more of the person I actually am, I lost the connections I had with certain people. The truth of the matter is that those people that faded out of my life were not the people I should’ve been around anyway. They were simply just people I was used to being around. 

You are never completely alone on an island.

There is some feature that you have that you think is completely unique that somebody else gets. They will understand you if you let them. 

I realized that life is too short to go on thinking that I won’t make these deep connections. The deep connections you make with people come from being completely vulnerable with who you are. Without these deep connections, life is unfulfilling. You go throughout each day making small talk with the people at work, judging the people on the street because they look different than what you’re used to, passing by people who might just know what you’re feeling, all because you are too closed off to what you really are. 

You need to be in tune with yourself and what makes you happy.

I have made the mistake of disregarding people based on their appearance. A few of my best friends are people that don’t look like they could be my best friends. They don’t appear to have much in common with me. But we were able to develop a great relationship because I dropped my ego. I just let it all hang out (not literally). I started showing what I liked and just asked:

WHO CAN RELATE?

Somebody will always be able to relate to you. 

Having somebody understand what you are going through makes you feel better.

But, you need to realize this:

THEY WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND UNLESS YOU LET THEM.

Be open to others.

Be true to yourself.

Be unapologetically unusual.

And be happy about it.

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Thank you for reading!

My goal is to inspire self-improvement in others through my personal stories and experiences.

This is The Exploration.