Shake It Off, Thanks T-Swizzle

I have had a certain topic gnawing at me for sometime now. I have often thought, "I really want to write something about this," or "people need to understand something about me". This thought has a lot to do with my pursuit for happiness. I suppose I should start off with a question to those reading this...

Have you ever found out someone said something behind your back? Have you ever had someone say mean things about you?

More than likely, you will probably answer "Yes!" and trust me, you are not alone. It has come to my attention from one of those silly "to be honest" post that teenagers put on each others social media, that I am not really talked about in an "oh so friendly" way. Or I guess in another words, people "talk a lot of shit on me". When I learned about this, I thought to myself - "Huh. I must be something special if people have the time of day to talk about me." It made me chuckle to myself.

It stuck with me for a while though. I wondered who it could be, what could have been said, and why? I seriously let it get to me. After thinking about it throughout the day, the week, and even right now as I type this in my statistic class, I have come to a realization that I am happy. I am more than happy with the life I am living right now and let me tell you why.

I have the best friends ever - REAL ones. I know people say that all the time, but let me tell you I am a difficult cookie and this cookie crumbles easily (especially with my  sugars fluctuating and raging hormones). My friends really understand what my intentions are and what my pursuits consist of at the time being. I have a family that I love. My family does not mean all blood, and, honestly, I can count my family on my two hands. After my parents' divorce, I lost a number of family members, but I really learned what family and love really means. I also have really good grades, and I am very proud of what I have accomplished in my academics, leader roles, and extra activities that I have found a love for doing. I am going to college (Oklahoma State University) and I almost have a full ride. I am happy with me. I like me. I love me! I like my style, my looks, my thought process, my open-mindedness, my hopes and dreams, my positions, my life, and my outspokenness especially. I really do like who I am and what I stand for in life. Some people like me, some people love me, and unfortunately some people dislike me, but that's okay. No matter who thinks what about you, it does not matter if you like you.

I have taken a liking to Taylor Swift's quote from her song "Shake It Off," and it goes "the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate; and I'm just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake. Shake it off." Yeah, the people who do not like you are not going to like you, and the only way to change that is perception and open-mindedness, so just shake it off.

KatieJoye