Lol, I know the title will be familiar to many of you out there, but for the rest, it's from Friends!
It was an amazing show with many great and funny moments and dialogues, but most importantly, the characters. Some people may like Joey, some may prefer Chandler, or maybe Phoebe. But deep down, we love all of them because, at some point or another, they felt relatable.
We love and respect those characters for who they were, but why isn't this the case with real people? Why do we fail to understand that everyone is different, and that we are not the ones who should sit back and hand out character certificates?
I often have conversations with my younger self, you know, to understand where I stand, what I'm doing, and whether I am becoming who I want to be. Recently, there was a moment when I had to stop and reflect on what was going on around me.
I’ve always tried to be a decent person to others, sometimes even at the expense of not getting what I wanted. But at what cost? People — a segment of this society we've created — have always had their opinions about everything I did. They’ve labeled me with various names, misrepresented who I am, and handed out character judgments based on their own standards.
These things happen to many of us, I know, and most of us ignore them. But for how long?
Sometimes, when I look back at these things, it really does have an effect in one way or another, especially when it’s done by people I’ve hardly interacted with, or by those I once considered "friends."
I know a lot of us go through this, but most of us prefer being silent, thinking no one will understand. But trust me, having the right kind of people around makes a really big difference.
I did have a conversation about this with a few of my friends, and I realized that it was indeed wrong to bottle it up. They helped me understand my worth and that it really doesn't matter what others think about me. Why should their opinions matter when they don’t?
Medical college is extremely exhausting in many ways, but little did I know that I'd have to juggle academics, other responsibilities, and constantly justify myself at every step, especially to those who don’t matter.
"It's like all of my life everyone has always told me you're a shoe, you're a shoe, you're a shoe, you're a shoe. And then today, I just stopped and I said, what if I don't want to be a shoe?"
This is one of my favorite dialogues from Friends, and now it’s going to be my mantra. I don’t have to prove who I am or what I am to those who don’t matter, especially when the people who truly matter are with me.
As a society, we've set standards and protocols for everything, and we tend to judge others if they step outside these standards, even just once. I’m not saying we should stop judging, because that’s almost impossible for us. But what I am saying is that everyone is different, and it’s not necessary for them to always fit into our standards. Sometimes, we just need to let people be who they are!