a·plomb
noun
1.imperturbable self-possession, poise, or assurance.
2.the perpendicular, or vertical, position.
Any readers, are you out there? If you are, wish my girl Evade good luck! She’s starting her new school this week! And you know what she needs? My new favorite word, aplomb! Confidence people, everyone needs it! Especially us teenagers, we’re swirling cesspools of negativity and doritos on the inside. With all the mixed messages, hormones, and peer pressure, it’s a wonder any of us have any self-esteem what-so-fricking-ever! That’s why we need as much help as we can get, whether from parents, teachers, or even more importantly, friends.
I say more importantly, not because friends are the most important things in our lives, but because as of now, they have a lot more influence. Think about it, we spend almost six hours a day with our friends, and then are texting them when we get home. We spend honest-to-goodnest face time with our parents only about 2 hours a day on weekdays, if we’re lucky. Our friends have influence that our parents can only dream about having on us. It’s both a detriment and a blessing. A detriment if you have the wrong kind of friends, a blessing if you have the right ones. The wrong friends will hurt and knock you down under the guise of a smile and a willingness to “help”. The right friends build you up, and are the best thing since sliced bread. Evade and I were actually talking about this the other night. I was commenting to her about how she’s the only one who sees a certain side of me, and she said that that was what she loved being my friend. I realized that’s what friendships are for, to not only uncover those secret sides of you that you hide from the rest of the world, but to celebrate them and make you feel worthy of having those feelings. I only have about 3 friends, Evade being one of them. Hopefully Evade has more, and will make even more in her new school!
I guess what I’m trying to say with this whole, long, rambling post about aplomb, doritos, and friends, is that we as humans are very receptive to our environments. We’re sponges, constantly soaking up what is around us and letting it influence who we are and how we act. As we get older, we develop a shell to the outside, and become more set in our ways. Some grownups take this too far and become completely unlearning, preferring simply to live in a world where everything they know is all there is. I hope that doesn’t happen to me. Even with all the bad things that come from being sensitive to my world, I never want to stop feeling it. I want to learn, hurt, be misunderstood, fall and get back up again. It all goes back to the theme this blog was founded on, life is a show. It’s up to you whether you’ll let other people pull you off the stage, or give yourself a standing ovation for being the best person you can be.
-Zodzia
Live The Show 