Image

Image. We all have one.

How we’re seen by others. How we’d like to be seen by others. How we think we’re seen by others.

We all have an image.

And it’s important.

It’s important to be well-liked, it’s important to maintain a good reputation, it’s important that other people see you relatively close to how you would like to be seen.

But what’s more important, is forgetting it all.

What’s more important, is remembering that how you see others might not be in line with who they actually are as a person.

We get placed into categories by others – the fun girl, the obsessive planner, the cliché blog post writer (hey).

And sometimes, that is all others are able to see.

What’s important, is to remember what it feels like when you are categorized, and therefore catch yourself when you start to categorize others.

What’s important, is to remember that you are not the image everyone sees you as.

Because you are so much more than that.

And regardless of your image to other people, you can be anyone you want to be.

And the only person you should want to be, is yourself.

You can say you drink your coffee black and then go order a latte. You can post twenty photos on Instagram of your apartment and then change it the next day. You can say you want to stay in and then go out until 7am.

You can do whatever you want.

You can be whoever you want.

Don’t let the image people see you as conform you into something you’re not, into something you don’t want to be.

And on that note, be proud of who you are. You like red wine? Great. You like white? That’s great, too. You like the Rolling Stones more than The Beatles? Same here, rock on.

Never be ashamed of who you are, what you’ve done, and where you would like to go.

Create your own image, and don’t worry if it gets construed in the eyes of others.

Because they’re all worried about their image, too.

Forget it all sometimes, and remember that most people don’t know the whole you. And most importantly, remember that the ones that do and the ones that want to – they’re the ones that matter most.