Though the title of this article may seem like I’m trying to tell 14 year olds to be nonconformists, I don’t mean it like that at all. For the past five or so years I have been extremely co-dependent on people. I have found that I lost myself in them. Their life was mine, and what happened to them was happening to me.

I have found that this is no longer true. It is so freeing. I am realizing, finally, that I can do anything I want with my life. I can go anywhere and be anything I want to be. I don’t have to sit around and wait for people; I don’t have to be afraid of losing anyone.

I am myself. I am not someone else, too. It took a lot of painful experiences to bring me to this point, so I’m hoping by writing this you can see that you can be your own person too.