There’s No Better Time To Be Yourself

By

I never had an official coming out moment. For me, it just kind of happened. In some ways, when it happened, it made a mess of my life. But in other ways, it helped me reevaluate and change the direction of my life and dreams. Most of all, it allowed me to breathe. It allowed me to finally and fully be myself—not a new me, but rather the authenticate version of me. It helped me find myself; it freed me to be whom I really was deep inside.

As kids, we are all carefree and happy. We very rarely care enough to be anything other than what we want to be. We like who and what we want; we do what brings us pure pleasure, all the while not caring about what others might think of us. But as we get older, people become more mean; the world becomes more harsh and cruel, and then we begin to care what everyone thinks and hide the parts of ourselves that we fear won’t be accepted or liked.

We all have parts of ourselves that we hide. It may not be sexuality, but we all have something: talents, obsessions, habits, thoughts, or preferences that we think someone or everyone will judge us for if they knew. But, it is time for us all to allow ourselves to breathe; it is time to allow ourselves to be free and real, the best and most authentic versions of ourselves.

Life is only lived when we are true to ourselves. Life is only fully explored and fully lived when we allow ourselves to be the real, authentic versions of ourselves. By hiding and caring and fearing judgement, we force ourselves down paths we hate, into molds that we aren’t comfortable in, and into ruts that we remain stuck in for years.

Life is too short for jobs, lives, partners, hobbies, diets, or anything that we don’t absolutely love or feel ecstatic about. Peak adulting is allowing our so-called freak flags to fly high and enjoying life on our own terms. We have to make sure we are not neglecting the most important relationship in our lives—the one we have with ourselves—to make others happy.

There is no better time to breathe. To be free. To be you.