One thing I've learned in life, one good lesson; is to never be pressured, never to be coerced into anything or something I'm not willing to. And that especially when I know such a thing isn't right or worth it. For what I can tell, such situations don't end well. They almost always end in bitterness, tears, regrets, sorrow, and the popular "had I known."
Funny how earlier today, around the afternoon period, I was thinking something in this line. Just reminiscing on the matter. I was left smiling and talking to myself, saying something like, "nah, I can't be coerced into doing it." It was a thought of something in the long past I guess, something I would have been successfully pressured or coerced into, but somehow I rose above the coercion. Well, I don't take the credit for that.
I would always say something to my close friends when such matters of being pressured comes up in our discussion; "I would rather lead myself into a thing than have someone pressure me into it." The underlings to that statement is the fact that I feel it out of place to be made to do something I know I'm not supposed to, and I'm not willing to. For me, it kind of plays down on my willpower and ability to make my own decisions. But no, I'm not making light of it. I've been pushed in some ways to do some certain things before.
Being at the end point of many sort of pressures—societal, peer, online pressures—coming directly or indirectly, I can vehemently say of how it's never an easy job managing such pressures. Especially when it feels like it's being rubbed on one's face. Having to cope and deal with such situations is one important life hack for me. And it has led me to one big matter I agreed to never be pressured into.
The fake like syndrome! Yes, I call it that. In this multifaceted, fast paced, digital growing, internet influenced and controlled world, this is something that has been highly and largely projected and financed with huge sums of billions of efforts. It used to be less in the old days, and even then you could still find something "real" in the fake life some lived. However, the practice today is different. The world and society has come to support and empower it by and large in some ways.
No matter what, and no matter who supports or portrays such, I'm never to be pressured into it—at least, not even at this stage of my life. The real life is the real deal. That's something I believe. For some moments that I've tried before to be a little of what I was not, I can really say of how unsettling and awkward it was. Having to push myself through some things to be what I'm not? I guess that energy could be channeled to becoming a better person from what I currently am, not jumping twenty miles ahead of me in a twinkle of an eye.
Yes, a fake like is more expensive than living one's real life. The constant pressure to live up to the taste of what I'm not isn't something I find worth it. To be pressured into something and then pressuring myself into maintaining it, that seems like a job that I'm losing rather than getting paid. I've seen and learnt closely from the life of some persons how devastating and frustrating this sort of life can be. And with such, the conclusion for me was never to tread that path—or worse, to be pressured into treading it.
This is my entry for the Hivenaija weekly prompt, week 92.