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Social pressure: A major roadblock on the way to self discovery

    So, I recently read Siddhartha, and I didn't like it all that much. However, it did get me thinking about the concept of the self, and what self discovery looks like. I am certainly no expert on the topic though, since I don't really know myself all that much. What I do know, though, is that social pressures most definitely do not help the process of defining that inner self. 

Oooooooh, it's a visual metaphor

    I, as a person, tend to try to please people. I'm sure that everyone deals with this to some extent, and I think we can agree that we may act differently in front of other people. There might be people who do this that have a really good idea of themselves, but in my experience, I certainly do not know in detail who I am (at least that I care to share). Anyway, I have found that compromising parts of your personality tends to obscure the self.  
Social pressure? I guess?

    As an example, if you still remember my first blog post, where I wrote about my Church small groups and what was going on there. Now, I usually never bring this up because it is a point of contention, even though I am very passionate about things being accurate. I was recently reminded of this when there was another meeting with tons of misinfo, some of which I had discussed with the speaker before (about factually wrong statements, not just my disagreement), and I sorta let loose that night, cracking jokes to my friends I normally wouldn't even think of saying near him. So, to bring it back to the main point, I feel like more of my actual opinions (which are a part of the self) came out as a result of me not caring anymore. So, maybe care less about what other people think. Sometimes, it's not that you don't know yourself, its just that you act differently in front of other people, so your self in public is like an amorphous blob (to varying degrees). For me, I pretty much tell jokes whenever, because people like that, but I'm gonna save that for another blog post. 

Anyway, I've probably talked enough, so...uh...bye, I guess?


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