Individuality is impossible

In a society where we all strive to be different and unique, the fact that in order attain our desired self worth, we must seek the approval of others makes it quite imposible to be special. As our readings mention this week, the meaning of success is capable of changing with time. Individuals pursue their dreams in hopes of achieving happiness and self fulfillment, but if your success is determined by those around you, how can you possibly become truly happy with your accomplishments if the only thing that matter is what others think of you?

We are told from a very young age that we are special, that being different is good. Our teacher's preach that we follow our dreams and that we have the power to shape our future. As with the athletes who were mentioned in our readings, when you are young, we have this perception of what a successful person looks like. But as we become older, we realize that success is determined by the amount of people who respect you, idolize you and the amount of trophies you acquire. With age, we learn to confrom to what our society seeks, we become part of a routine and become socialized to believe that the only thing that matter is the opinions of our fans. Regardless of the situations we are placed in, we adapt and change to make others happy and make sure that they approve. We are constantly changing our appearances and our attitudes to make sure that people like us.

There is no such thing as individuality, society strips us from that. We may think we are different, but we are always looking for attention. The people who are "different", society calls them deviants, they are outsiders to society. The people who are truly different and stand up for what they believe are sometimes scrutinized and brushed aside. An example which we will be discussing this week is gay people, if it was ok to be different and unique, society would not have such a huge problem with accepting and allowing people to pursue their desires. In the end we are trying to conform to noncomformity, but society has already placed its boundaries as to what is accepted and what is not.

Raul Duran
KIN 577