Trying to fit the mold

I remember back in high school feeling this unending desire to fit in and to be accepted. I thought that when we left high school all of that ended. Recently though I have come to realize it does not. A very big part of this world we live in is trying to fit into other people's molds. There are all kinds of molds out there. The religious ones. The work ones. The social ones. I'm sure there is a mold for just about anything. I think sometimes this is why people can come off as being so conflicted, because they are trying to fit too many molds.

One of the things I have come to realize lately is that religion itself is really nothing more than just another mold to fit into. These questions have bugged me for years: why have I been so anti-religious? How can I be anti-religious and still believe in the God of the bible? The more I see here. The more I watch people interact with each other. The more I begin to understand about myself. Because I see that as humans as much as we want to fit in sometimes, there is also a need for individuality. This is truly why I never fit in at church, and why I do not fit in to a lot of social circles.

I believe that to be able to be yourself in front of others is truly the best compliment you could ever give them. Because by doing so you are opening the door for them to be themselves as well. The desire to fit into the molds that are presented more often than not smother a persons individuality. People fall into this without even realizing it sometimes. People say that religion sets so many standards that cannot and do not need to be lived by. Maybe that true. But religion is not the only thing in this world that sets standards for others to live by. People do. Whether they believe in God or not. Whether they recognize that or not.

It is up to each person to decide if they want to spend their life trying to live up to the standards of others or if they want to live up to the standards they have set for themselves. If you choose to be someone who breaks the mold more often than not you are rejected because you don't go with the flow. You don't follow the "norm". People who try to step out are often attacked and viewed as weak because they will not bend to the way others would like them to be. To do that could easily imply to the ones not willing to step out that they are weak. But really what is it that makes a person strong or weak?

Is it someone else's opinion of you? Or your own? Is it really considered strength when you cannot and are not willing to stand on your own? I have believed for many years that the greatest strength a person can possess is not only the ability to recognize and accept their own weakness', but to recognize and accept the weakness' of others. Because we are after all just people, trying to find our way through this life. Religion has taught me much through-out the last 17 years. I don't believe anymore that it really matters whether the pretence is correct or not.

I have come to the conclusion that life is something to be lived, and part of living is gleaning important lessons from every opportunity we are given to do so. I have come to the conclusion that we as people ought to accept ourselves first before we start believing we are really accepting others. I have come to the conclusion that in the end the only thing that will have really mattered is not how many people loved or accept me as an individual, but rather that I loved myself and was not afraid to be an individual in a world that does not support it. Because when it's all said and done we go to the grave alone, and the only thing left behind is the kind of life we chose to live.