Do you remember the moment you took agency of your own life?
Did you change in that moment? Did it cost anything? What came next?
I weirdly do. It was in middle school, and it was on a walk with my best friend.
We were fed up with the fact that were didn’t think we were “cool” enough. To some folks we were probably plenty cool. But in our own eyes, we didn’t measure up the way we thought we should.
We were probably 13 years old, in 7th or 8th grade.
This was also before social media; I can’t imagine what these kids go through know like this.
Anyway, we no shit decided we were going to be “cooler” as if we just decide to be that way, like changing a hat. We determined we needed to dress better (no more purple “Save the Whales” sweatsuits -thanks Mom). And get better haircuts. And act less dorky.
So, no more open discussions about computer games like Command and Conquer and arguments about who has the best character in Dungeons & Dragons.
I mean, this was serious. We wanted girlfriends one day.
That walk ended up being miles long and taking several hours. By the time we got back, we had a plan. And the weird thing was, while the early stages of this scheme may have taken us away from our true selves, it gave us confidence.
That confidence later gave us the ability to get back to those true reflections of ourselves, which in the end is what ultimately made us “cool” to begin with.
Growing up is weird.
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