Sarah+Bor's+OpEd+Article

What do you want from me? Why are you doing this to me? Please just leave me alone, I haven’t done anything to deserve this… You’re not skinny enough that’s what you have done. You aren’t even pretty. Ha, you think you can actually make it in school?

Every year, every day, every hour, every second I struggle though our world trying to reach “perfection” along with everyone else. No matter what anyone does though, it is never enough. In eighth grade, I began to struggle with bulimia in order to achieve the “perfect” body. I hid behind baggy, dark clothes in order to make people steer clear of me and to hide what I thought was fat. I wore long sleeves to hide the cuts running up and down my arms because of feeling worthless. I wore such heavy makeup as to make people not see what I thought (and still think) is my ugly face. But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve noticed how many people actually are like me and are constantly trying to fit in.

In our society, there are so many issues with how we can achieve being beautiful or handsome. One minute a girl having curves is okay, the next it is not because it is fat. A girl can be skinny as long as she still looks like a women, but not too skinny because you’ll look like the walking dead. The same kind of thing happens to boys too (sorry boys I can’t speak from a guys perspective with examples.) If you are smart great, but don’t be too smart because that is just weird. If you aren’t the brightest crayon in the box just try your best, just don’t look too stupid. You can’t please anyone. Even what I’m writing right now I’m having a hard time with being confident about because someone might think it’s stupid or that I’m stupid.

When we were little kids, who actually thought about making other people happy? I sure wasn’t, I was too busy trying to soar into space on the swing set at the park. At the age of 4, we were too busy dreaming about being doctors, teachers, and whatever else our little hearts desired. But now we are living in our own nightmares, trapped because we try to please everyone and we are killing ourselves in the process.