There is nothing worse than trying to chase what's popular. Especially at the cost of losing yourself and your identity.

Let me tell you a little story.

I had a friend in high school, lets call him Bob.

Bob was a super introverted kid, who dressed pretty emo and liked bands such as My Chemical Romance.

Bob wasn't remotely popular at the school but he seemed very comfortable being himself; he dressed and acted authentically. He was quirky, very goofy and happy.

The school year ended, summer happened and after months of not seeing Bob, I saw him on the first day of school and I couldn't believe my eyes.

He had cut his long hair that covered his face, ditched the eye make up and was dressed like everyone else. At first I thought this was him coming out of his shell...but it quickly became apparent it was more than that.

Bob burned his Cds (anyone remember those?) of My Chemical Romance and instead was listening to whatever was popular on the radio. I think it was Taylor Swift.

He ditched his artbook where he kept his drawings and instead bought whatever the latest cellphone was. At lunch he would hover around the cool kids waiting to be invited to their table.

He never was.

Slowly Bob and his personality became more and more generic, more like the temperature of whatever was popular at the moment. Despite this, he never got invited to the parties he wanted to be invited to, but it didn't stop him from losing more and more of himself.

The whole time the glimmer in his eyes that he had when he was being his emo self, had eroded until there was a dead look behind those eyes. He was a shell of what he once was.

We lost contact with each other but the last time I saw Bob, he seemed even unhappier and he seemed to be trying even harder to fit in.

Bob taught me a lot. First that its NEVER worth it to try to chase popularity. And it isn't up to others to accept you before you feel validated.

I tell you this story because I think cases like Bob are FAR more frequent in our social media generation where EVERYONE is trying to follow the latest trend.

Everyone is so scared of being left out of the cool kids table they forget that they are pretty cool themselves.

As Miles Davis said “it takes a really long time to sound like yourself.”

At Raskol our motto is to help you better find your true self. To give you a voice and empower you to boldly be your unique person.

Be yourself, everyone else is already taken.