Laws of Life

Brooke Haynes “Be who you are and say what you feel. Because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.” –Dr. Seuss Adolescence is that awkward growing period that everyone must go through. It is that couple years of life in which you go on a pursuit to find friends, hobbies, and most importantly: yourself. However, it is not easy to find yourself, for there are so many people, emotions, and rumors that might get in the way. For me, especially, it has been so hard to learn who I am and who I want to work to be, but I’m finally starting to figure it all out. My whole life, I have grown up in one of those “perfect” families that people envision us to be. My brother is a star athlete who also happens to be a genius, my two sisters look like beauty queens and excel at nearly everything they do, and my parents have had very successful lives as well. Though when it comes to me, I’ve never really understood where or how I fit in. I started thinking about this in about fifth grade, which was probably one of the most fragile years of my life considering that I had just moved schools. On my first day in this new jungle of an elementary school, I was immediately judging people. There were all kinds of different people venturing around the colorfully painted hallways, all going off in their own directions. Some girls had weird haircuts, some boys wore dorky clothes, others were literally addicted to things like recess and snack time, and then there was the obvious group of popular kids. The first thing I thought when I saw them was, “Wow, I really want to be friends with them.” This state of mind had unfortunately infected my mind, making me segregate any people who did not fit whatever requirements I may have had. What I did not know at the time was that there were so many nice people who accepted me and cared about me that I was shutting out, yet I was only focused on the people who were shutting me out. If I