Worrying About What Other People Think!

Hi Guys!

Today I thought I would talk about something which I have let myself spend too much time over and that is worrying too much about what other people think. This is something that I have constantly done over pretty much anything throughout my teenage years and something which I am trying to do less of now.

That it not to say that I never worry about what others think of me, of course I do, it's human nature. I simply do not let it rule my entire life.

Throughout school and sixth form I have let myself be ruled by how I would be perceived by people my own age. I now realise that this probably one of the reasons why I was so shy at this time as I was worried what people would think if I was any more confident. I also worried how people would react if I suggested something. This is why whenever someone would ask me what I wanted to do, I would always answer "I don't know" as I was worried that they would shoot down my idea making me feel like a complete idiot. However this approach only made the person asking mildly annoyed and made the situation last for longer.

Also I had a problem with asking questions. As I got older people generally tended to ask less questions as we generally knew what we were doing more. However this meant that I was not as used to asking questions and would feel stupid if I needed to ask one. I was worried that people would think I was stupid for not knowing what the answer was. However when I got my first job over the summer I found that I needed to ask question in order to know what I was. What I found was that people were more than happy to answer the questions I had. In fact they were happier if I asked the question than did something wrong or did not do it at all. As a result I find it easier to ask questions at university as sometimes others will want to know the same thing as you.

Since leaving sixth form I have found that I care less about what people think about me. I have realised that the people whose opinion of me I thought were so important I no longer with me and those who are surely would want what is better for me. I suppose I have realised that the only opinion that matters is my own. I am the one that has to live with the situations I find myself in and I am the one that has to live with the consequences of what I am doing with my life. One of the reasons I realised that I don't want to be at university was that I didn't care what anybody thought if I left university. As soon as a year ago I would have felt ashamed at what others would think of me especially my extended family and people at school (most of which won't remember my name in ten years time). Now I don't care! I know why I want to leave and feel I am happy with and can justify my decision. If people think I have made a wrong decision then that's up to them, but they didn't have to live through these last few weeks. If they truly love me then they will accept by decision. If they don't, then quite frankly I couldn't give a shit!