No 6: LOSE YOUR APPETITE

PHOTO BY LUCIA AUERBACH

LUCIA AUERBACH

Don’t think that you are unique.

Your favorite song has 76 million streams on one platform. You cut your hair the way you and half a million other people saw it on Pinterest. You lament over the same emotional pain 300 million people face, and you cry into a pillow advertised on TV. Your dream school received 100,000 other applicants, and you long to live in a city with 8 million other people. Your screen time is 8 hours at looking at other people’s work, and you combine other artist’s talents into your own to seem creative.

Don’t think that you are unique.

Your name is the most popular in Spain since the year before you were born, you are the average height for the opposite sex, your favorite artist is world-renowned, you’ve only read 3 classic books, and obsess over the same author like everyone else. Your favorite movies get nominated at award shows, and you buy overpriced clothes and ignore them in two weeks. You drive the 18th most famous car in the world and are 18th in your class. 

Don’t think that you are unique.

You have a tattoo that you found off of the internet and matching piercings with every other 18-year-old. You share 3 of the most common fears with the rest of the world, and your favorite Starbucks drink is made hundreds of times a day. You ski blue runs and follow the speed limit. You listen to radio shows alongside 2,000 other people, and you tune into live streams with them too. 

Do not think that you are unique, but don’t lose your appetite over it.