by Ugo Ogwu

“We live under the illusion that  a lot is expected of us even though in reality no one is paying any attention to what we are doing. “

My deepest fear is being that person that lives his life trying to fit into the world’s definition of beauty and perfection.By how much should we let people or “society” define the way we live our lives? Who or what should we allow set the standard by which we measure our self worth? Some of us are not living “our lives” because we are too scared of being free, unwittingly caged by the dictates of the “world” we live in; Influenced by the opinion of friends, family and even strangers.

We never truly  give ourselves the privilege of being “us”, always looking out for ideas on how we should live, not accepting ourselves for who we truly are because  we think we might not measure up to the standard of the “world”. Thereby,  feigning what we are not.

This way of living can be attributed to our ostentatious life style; The lies we tell of the achievements we never made, the attitude we put  in order to get noticed. We go overboard to get that “expensive item” not because we need it or even like it, but because it seems to place us in a certain group, give us a certain class or a certain reputation.

We put on what  people would like to see. We live under the illusion that  a lot is expected of us even though in reality no one is paying any attention to what we are doing. We walk with a false sense of self-esteem and inflated self-worth but, who we are on the inside is being suppressed by who society has made us to become.

Here is the down side; until we accept ourselves for who we truly are, only then can we see the potentials in us, and develop our latent abilities. We need to free our minds in order to break free from the bandwagon mentality. That kind of freedom  where we don’t  feel mortified to show our scars because they hold priceless stories of our victory over adversity.

The truth is many of us fail to realise that we are just humans,we should strive to stand out and not try to fit in; We need to realise that we cannot be more than mere mortals. Each of us has our individual foibles, and so we should  not let social class create a sense of inequality in us.

We must  learn to appreciate the beauty in the simple things that are beyond our defiling hands, things that cannot be artificially enhanced just to make it  aesthetically  pleasing. Savour those moments that cannot be forgotten, that are captured in our hearts and give us nostalgic delight.

Appreciate those people whose words are so soothing that they evoke smiles amidst life’s  turmoil; Those who in giving were utterly altruistic. Those men  who lived truly inspiring lives whose epitaphs are written on the skies – their life stories  carried in the wind across seas, mountains, deserts and lands;  Unbridled by language or culture, to be heard by posterity. Men who would  live on even in death.

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Ugo Ogwu is a fledgling writer. He tweets from @tohneyugo.

30 Days, 30 Voices series is an opportunity for young Nigerians from across the world to share their stories and experiences – creating a meeting point where our common humanity is explored.

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija