everything is embarrassing (so nothing is)
let me set the scene for you: i'm 8 years old and my mother is getting me ready for school. every morning, she puts my hair in two braids so it doesn't end up a frizzy mess by the end of the day. she drops me off at school, and i wave bye and watch her drive off.
not even a minute later, the hair ties come out and my braids are undone. every morning of that year my mom would braid my hair, and every morning of that year i would take it out.
for some reason i was so embarrassed my hair was in two braids?? i don't know if i subconsciously thought i looked like pocahontas or what, but i just did not want my hair braided. i told my mom i used to do this and she just laughed and said "everything you did, i did when i was your age." that sent me into a deep retrospection about our shared experiences and very unoriginal experiences.
pretty much everything we do, generations have done before us (almost everything — some of y'all have some weird stuff going on). so why do we feel like we're so alone in our experiences?
there have been so many times where i'll look back at pictures or memories and think, what am i doing? this has been made infinitely worse by the rise of social media and the fact that these younger generations seem to not have an awkward phase. but then i'll really think about it and it makes me kinda sad.
we're supposed to go through different stages to figure out who we are! and we're supposed to do things that other people might find embarrassing! but that does not mean we should be embarrassed by it!
i don't know where this stigma came from that we always need to be the picture perfect image of societal standards. some of the things we were doing during 2020 quarantine era were a bit questionable, some of the things we do now will probably be laughed at in a few years. if we were to go hang out in the 1600s for a bit, we'd probably be accused of witchery and burned at the stake. luckily now the consequences are less intense, but there's definitely pressure to try to fit in.
i think we also worry so much about how we're perceived, but realistically how often are we even thinking about other people like that? we constantly think about how we look and what we're doing and all of our own issues, and there's no energy left to worry about other people in passing.
anyway, this is all to say that we all need to embrace who we are and not stress about whatever "embarrassing" things we might be doing. if everything is embarrassing, nothing is embarrassing.
love you guys <3