God, save us: another freaking article about the forsaken BEING YOURSELF?!
Yes, everybody. If you’ve made it this far, I congratulate you. So, read on and be amazed...

NUMBER ONE: BE A TOTAL FREAK.
I guess telling you to be yourself and then be weird is kind of uncalled for. But, if you ask me, everyone, hidden deep under their masks and façades, is weird. So, show the world your true weirdness! Dress like a bird then jump off a tree low to the ground in the middle of the park. Swim in a pool of bronze paint then stand on the ledge of your local Barnes and Noble and freak people out. Throw flowers in front of a government building and hold a peaceful protest (me = not responsible if you get arrested for doing these things; beware). Whatever you do, make sure it’s extraordinary (and within the legal limits, please). Make people stare and make them wonder. They might think rude thoughts about you, yes, but they’re jealous on the inside, I promise.

NUMBER TWO: SHAVE THE WOOL AND FEEL ALIVE.
Don’t fit in. If I could offer you any piece of advice (or cheesecake) for the future, I would tell you not to be a sheep. Not in the literal sense, fool, but in a philosophical sense. People, in general, are total and complete sheep. They go with the flow; they follow the herd; they do not have minds of their own. That is where we get the American population (loves the country, questions authority). So, stand up and declare your freedom. You are alive and your eyes are open. If your greatest desire is to follow blindly, go ahead and partake in such activities. But, I’m telling you now: you’re wasting your life being like everyone else. What’s the fun of meeting the same person over and over and over…just with different hair?

NUMBER THREE: THINK FOR YOURSELF
Your mom’s a Conservative Republican (ooh, politics, scary!). That means you have to be one too, right? I mean, you have to make your parents happy, don’t you? WRONG! You canNOT live your life to please other people! We have minds, do we not? They’re not only for deciding which lovely bag of chips to eat, I swear! We have minds of our own because we are meant to have thoughts of our very own! I mean, think about it: how many times have you been arguing with someone you hoped to impress? They say something you disagree with, but you agree anyway for the heck of it. It’ll get you some extra points in their book, sure...but it’s not YOU you’re getting points for! We’re supposed to have open minds and free thoughts...so why oh WHY don’t we just say what we feel and move on? If people don’t like you because you prefer the chocolate ice cream over the strawberry, then they can go rot in a hole. Respect yourself. You have an opinion, and it is the most important, most dangerous tool you will ever possess.

NUMBER FOUR: QUESTION EVERYTHING YOU HEAR - AUTHORITY INCLUDED
So maybe it SOUNDS like I’m encouraging you to go spray paint your initials on the nearest brick wall, but I am NOT. I’m saying that you shouldn’t believe everything you hear. This goes along nicely with the “THINK FOR YOURSELF” category, but it’s cool enough for a section of its very own. Anyway; people lie. They tell you what you want to hear, and if you accept every random opinion and unaccountable fact you hear, you’ll never know what’s real and what’s fake. So think about everything. If your principal tells you something, chances are he’s telling it to you for your own good. But, just because someone with a fancy shmancy college degree told you something does not mean you should believe it. Usually it’s the people who are young and haven’t been quite as polluted with society’s endless rules and regulations that have the most interesting, honest thoughts. Listen to everyone and question everything.

NUMBER FIVE: ACQUIRE A PERSONALITY OF YOUR VERY OWN

Story time! (Yaay!):
Very recently, I went on vacation with my family. It was a tourist trap of a place, let me tell you, but really awesome. So we were at one of the most tourist-y places around and there was a group of people about my age wandering about. They were texting, giggling, flirting, y’know: stupid teenager crap, ignoring what they’re not used to for what they are used to. All of a sudden I hear this girl say something, and she sounded EXACTLY (without fail) like a girl from where I’m from. Her voice, her laugh, her WORDS. I whirled around, startled, only to find the girl looked nothing like girl I know. Okay, yeah, they had the same general shorts and a t-shirt look, but it clearly wasn’t her. I was honestly frightened. Are people so much alike you can hardly decipher one from the other? Yes, yes they are.
You have a unique, unheard of personality under all the things the world has tried to change about you. So scrape away the makeup, lose the insecure thoughts, and stop worrying! Forget what people are thinking about you and let lose! You’ll make some honest, real friends in the process, and lose some that weren’t really friends in the first place.



NUMBER SIX: JUST...LIVE, ALRIGHT?
Dress how you want, eat how you want, listen to what music you want, laugh how you want, talk how you want (even with a fake accent!), dance how you want, sing how you want, read what you want, write what you want, draw what you want, and just LIVE HOW YOU WANT TO!!! I am so sick and tired of people being the same! Start a controversy, cause a riot, cut your bangs weird, recycle a can, pick up trash on the side of the road, go hiking, survive in the woods without help, learn to play a ukulele, go skydiving, change the world!
You can do whatever you want, as long as no one (including yourself) is hurt in the process. Have fun, make friends, love your enemies, and realize this common phrase is all truth: Life is short. We, as the youth of the world, ARE the future. How about we show the coming generations that people are not meant to be the same?