When a person gets too much attention, many things can change his/her personality. This is especially true if the person is not a mature adult (in other words, the person is still searching/building character). One of the worst things to happen as you build internally, is to get unneeded attention. Things can backfire that way. What is worst is when you happen to be treading on an unsuitable path and people around you are too doting to tell you the truth, or in fact make you believe it is cool.
You see why people who reach superstardom at a young age often become jerks? Why are young achievers often so self centered? Why are spoilt brats the way they are? When unlucky circumstances befalls them, they turn into such losers… unable to cope.
It must be horrible to be taken for granted. We are not how we look, but sight is widely adopted as a judgement tool. Worse is to believe in what people see in us – good or bad – and gaining an unhealthy sense of self-esteem – high or low. Usually our self-worth is never accurate if we have to go with other people’s social measurements.
We should be the person who know ourselves best, for better or worse, and be honest about it. To be true to ourselves, or life would be a confusing hell. We find ourselves in introspection and feel robbed off time wasted from the person we should have been. Do not cheat yourself – you are responsible for you. The retrospective COULD have, SHOULD have, WOULD have – is too little too late if we carelessly bluff our way through life – believing only in the things we want to believe about ourselves, refusing growth.
We shall shift to the paradigm of being stupidly popular. Picture a pretty girl who is spoiled at home and popular in her school. With the admiring peers, doting nature of her parents and teachers, this princess can do no wrong. Everything she says ends up being cool, and when it is not cool, she gets forgiven easily and her mistakes brushed off as ‘just a phase’. Every small tasks done is followed by ‘that’s wonderful darling’ and ‘ooh, how cute’. The sort of character building path she is taking will not serve her in the world at large. Life will be tough if she needs to survive the world on pure skills and intelligence. No one ever corrected her earlier. Imagine not having access to informative and objective viewpoints all through your formative years until you come out into the harsh reality of the world. What a high price to pay for mistakes!
How does one gain insight and wise introspection when surrounded by consistent loud clanging noises?
Therefore I conclude, it is not easy being popular and wise at the same time because you would have to be a person who does not enjoy admiration of surface qualities. Be that someone who doesn’t buy social approval. The misconception of what holds values in life reflects on the beholder’s cluelessness. Shallow beliefs pose as character building hurdles.
Speaking of which, it is like that slipped disc my friend was suffering from of late. He was put on a prescription of medical painkillers while he recovered. It was a courageous thing to do when he decided not to take the painkillers. The rationale is that the pain killer would mask his true condition, numbing further and perhaps hurting himself even more. It is always good to keep in track of our issues in real time no matter how unpleasant it can be.
PAINKILLERS DRUG!