Geisel's Misconceptions

It’s often a misconception that in order to find happiness you must have the approval of others or loads of money or a beautiful face. In a way all of those thing can add to one's overall happiness but, most of the time in the midsts of trying to achieve these things we wind up making ourselves miserable. What you think is happiness is really just the acceptance of someone who doesn't really care. “Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind” (Geisel). Most who would read that statement would look over it as a cheesy piece of advice and not give it a second thought,
but give it a second thought. Those people who you’re trying to look like, dress like, talk like, win their approval, impress, do they really care? If all their trying to do is change you to fit their likings, why are you telling yourself that those are your friends or idols. Why would you want the approval of someone so badly even though they only speak to you when you do or have something they like. It’s pointless. That is not where you will find happiness. You will find happiness when you stop caring about all those little thing like ‘Are my jeans the right brand?’, ‘Did I seem cool enough when she said hello to me in the hallway?’, ‘Will they ask me to sit with them if I dress just like them?’. True happiness is not when others except you, it’s when you accept yourself and only let those with love and positivity influence you.
“Love yourself before anything else”. You hear that all the time. It’s in people’s instagram bios, it’s on t-shirts, notebooks, cups, magnets, you name it. Your mom even says it when you tell her about how badly you want to fit in and if you could just have this one pair of shoes you would. But then what happens, just when you start to believe that you see that magazine with the flawless models that you definitely don’t look like. You hear that the girl you thought was really actually just being nice when she said ‘I love your shirt!’ was just doing it because her other friends dared her to. These people, our society has become so numb to the feelings of others that loving and building each other up seems like something that only happens in a fairytale.
Believe it or not there are people in this world besides your mom who will love and accept you just the way you are. Those people may not be the most popular but, they will give you real love. Where there is real love there is real happiness. You will find that suddenly it’s ok to just be yourself and what all those other people thing couldn’t mean less to you. By finding friends that support you and build you up being who you truly are will come so easy it’ll be hard to remember what it was like to care so much.
In this world we are greatly influenced by those around us. Whether it’s a negative or positive impact depends on who’s opinion really matters to you and who you let have the power over you. Happiness does not come from the approval of people who just want to you be like them, happiness comes from the love and approval from those who truly love and care for you. It takes time to really let go of the opinions of those who don’t matter but, it’s amazing how much happier you’ll be once you do.