Do you remember being made fun of as a child, for dancing when you thought no one was looking, for being too dreamy, too weird, too [insert here]? I had this thought, that what if those characteristics about ourselves that we dropped because we got shamed for them are actually the cues for what makes us happy?
An Example
when I was younger, my friends would always tease me for being too dreamy, for being sentimental and melancholic, for liking to daydream about silly stories I made up in my head. I got really embarrassed for being this way, to the point of where I felt bad about myself but also about my friends. I felt like I was being shamed and made fun of for what intrinsically made my mind go wander, what set me off to dream and think about the future.
Today, I’m a bit older, and I dropped those dreamy habits of mine. Call it adulting, growing up or cynism but I just don’t feel like I can dream like I used to. But the other day I watched a video of a girl who makes very cinematic videos about her life, and although there is a lot of posing, I realized that me judging the dreaminess was a cynical part of me who felt like : I was once like that, it’s not real life, stop pretending.
I have become the friend that told me earlier that I’m stupid for being so dreamy, that it’s awkward and so on. How sad.
But along with that sad realisation, I also realised that maybe those traits that we got rid of growing up like being silly, dreamy, etc. could be the character traits to lean in to; what if those qualities were actually what makes us us and what we should follow.
What if these characteristics of ours lead us to a beautiful place in life where we feel accepted instead of told to change, encouraged instead of shamed and eventually lead us to the people that are good for us?
Feel free to share your thoughts on this!