How can I stop being influenced by what other people think?
Q: How can I stop being influenced by what my friends and others are thinking?
A: Throughout middle school, high school, and even most of college, I struggled with this very thing. It wasn’t so much peer pressure as this overwhelming feeling that I needed to follow what my friends thought. Like if there was a girl I thought was cute, but my friends didn’t like her (or, more honestly, if I thought my friends wouldn’t like her), then there was no way I would consider talking to her.
I felt like two different people. When I was at home with just my family and maybe one or two friends around, I felt free and happy to be myself. But at school, I felt boxed in, and like I was trying to conform to whatever I thought other people thought I should be.
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