Stay You
Alyssa Pendon (she/her)
Editorial Team Member
One of the hardest parts about summer for me is not comparing myself to other people.
Yeah I said it, sometimes I do compare myself to other people. Don’t lie and say you don’t do it either.
I have around 1,100 followers on Instagram, and I follow almost all of those people back. I also follow a couple of content creators as well. Most of my followers are people I’ve never even met in person or live across the world from me. Constantly I see so many different lives all at once. Not even taking account just scrolling reels on my For You Page or my Explore Page.
Seeing that many people on a day to day basis can get to you in a variety of ways. It always feels like someone always has fun plans, on a cool vacation in a place my family would never dare to go, or someone's achieving something crazy and documenting for the world to see.
On Linkedin there is a different kind of comparison than normal social media platforms. It feels like everyone has 500+ connections, founder of a startup or nonprofit that has crazy impact, has some internship with a university or fortune 500 company, and somehow has a 4.0.
I start to feel worse about myself because, honestly, I’ve been at home most days this summer. I sound like a loser I know but most of my days this summer have been just me and my computer going at it. There have been multiple days this summer where I didn’t even go outside, once.
So when I go on social media and see other people doing all the things I have not been doing it makes me feel bad about myself. I’m still a ‘kid’ and all I do is sit on my computer.
Though once I take a second away from my social media pages and my computer I remember that my path is different than everyone else's. Just because I’m not constantly with other people and post my entire life on social media doesn’t make my life boring. There have been times I’ve gone outside, hung out with people, and I’m leaving for a summer program soon.
I also remember that I’m currently in multiple internships, and have calls in the morning, as well as working atmany nonprofit organizations all remotely. So yeah, I need to be on my computer. Just because other people are living a different life than me doesn’t make mine boring. I’m doing things that further my professional development while most kids my age haven’t even had an internship in the field they want. Or have higher level positions in nonprofit organizations.
I’m trying to remember that I know what I want in my life more clearly than most people. And just because someone wants to do something different doesn’t make me behind or worse or better than someone, it’s just different.
Make sure to be yourself and do what you’re passionate about. Because at the end of the day it’s your life and you can do whatever you want.
