pressure

By: Farah Hikal

To everyone struggling to be better, to do better, to be perceived better .. to the perfect friend, to the supermom, to the pretty lady and the perfect girlfriend. To me, you and all of us.

It’s okay if at the end of the day you’re not called “perfect”, it’s okay to stop making an effort for a while, it’s okay if you’re not getting your act together.

It’s okay if you don’t get along with your family, it’s okay if you’re not being the perfect daughter, the perfect friend or the amazing date.

It’s okay not to have a job, not to graduate in your early 20s, not to have the perfect body, not to eat healthy. To not get over it first, to still try to dial up their number, to still think how they’re doing.

It’s okay to be what you want, to do what you feel, not what society pushes you to do.

It’s okay if you don’t want to lose weight or if you showed your scars.

It’s okay if you don’t have the perfect wedding or celebrate your birthday in a fancy place or not celebrate it at all.

It’s okay if you don’t want to have kids or even get married in the first place.

For all my life society has taught me to wake up and be the perfect student, return home and be the perfect daughter, go out and be the perfect friend, have feelings and be the perfect girlfriend, to always wear a smile and say I’m okay .. but it didn’t teach me to be who I want to be, to do what I feel, to lose and fail, to not hide myself when I cry, and to stop trying to fit in, to be my own reflection and not how they want me to be.

To you, again, take a deep breath. It’s okay not to be okay. It’s not going to be perfect, but it’s going to be what you want it to be, and that’s what matters the most.

Stop seeing life through the lens of the society! Don’t conform to anything just because that’s what society expects from you.

“We search for happiness everywhere, but we are like Tolstoy’s fabled beggar who spent his life sitting on a pot of gold, under him the whole time. Your treasure–your perfection–is within you already.” -Eat, Pray, Love.