The Perfect Life

    • 02
      Nov

    There are 2,508 known languages in the world and over 600,000 words in the English dictionary. There are so many colorful words we can use to describe bits and pieces of life as we know it: nouns, verbs, adjectives, conjunctions that can all help us express the beauty and the horror of the world around us. Honestly, I will admit there is only one descriptive word in this language that intimidates me, “PERFECTION”. 

    Perfect:

    Adjective “1) having all the required or desirable elements, qualities, or characteristics; as good as it is possible to be. 2) to be absolute or complete.”

    Verb “1) make (something) completely free from faults or defects, or as close to such a condition as possible” 

    Can you see why I find that word terrifying? Perfection is nothing but an idea. It isn’t even a concrete idea that is mutual amongst society, but an opinion that differs from person to person. That’s 6billion people with a different version of what they believe to be perfect.  Which is why I raise the question…. Why does everyone try so hard to obtain something so abstract? If there is no real definition of the word then how can anyone obtain perfection! It is implausible that one human walking on God’s green Earth can be held up on a pedistal and deemed by the world that he or she is perfect, because to be perfect means to have no flaw according to the definition, and everyone has their flaws. Yet we see through social media the “perfect” lives, people that make us envious of how they live, money, fame, adventure, social status, what ever you deem as successful. I catch myself looking at instagrams and twitters thinking “what can I do to be like you?”.

    Wrong, wrong, wrong!!! I am being absolutely obsered everytime I think those demeaning thoughts, because it reminds me of a time when I tried to be “perfect” in order to gain the acceptance of those around me. Which didn’t just hurt me, it almost killed me! No I’m not being dramatic, I am being honest and transparent. The attempt to be flawless is always striving for an unobtainable abstract idea and that in essence is an UNHEALTHY Addiction! Yes my friends it’s an addiction! Though we know it’s unhealthy we all still do it daily… if not hourly! And on top of that we try to mock what we see and incorporate these blasphemous ideas into our own lives in our lust for attention. Gaining followers, likes, favorites are all the concepts of what social media is about, a false sense of connection and a shallow source of attention.

    Today, I saw something that gave me hope and showed the true nature of the accounts we view as “perfect”. Essena O’Neill is not old enough to drink. She is not of legal age of consent in most countries. She has no “real world” experience as an adult but yet she had 500,000 Instagram followers, over 100,000 views on all of her YouTube videos, and looks to live the life we all wish we had. Yet she is now doing something bigger than living the perfect life, she is exposing it in all of its ugly secrets! Which is something I applaud her for and a reason I would want to follow her. Essena deserves to be commended for her courage and willingness to use her voice. The fact she is willing to give it all help to give light to the next generation of young women looking to be perfect is pretty selfless! 

    Essena O’Neill
    I am 23 years old and I was inspired by an 18 year old! I wish this girl would have been around when I was 20 and needed a good shaking. For anyone who has a daughter, son, sister, brother, friend that believes in the “perfect life” sit them down to watch the whole video, tie them to the couch if you must. Then after give them another one of the 600,000 words in the English language to describe their life or them, to make the word perfect disappear from their lives.   

     

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