As I grow older, I worry less and less about what people have to say and think. As a young person I was so caught up in keeping up appearances. I was worried that if anything slipped through the cracks and showed people that I wasn’t perfect, I’d be shunned from society. Mind you, back then, society was quite harsh but in reality, everyone was too worried about themselves to really take notice of anyone else. Even if I had slipped back then and accidentally showed the world my flaws (or so I thought of them), as long as everyone was too busy thinking about themselves, it wouldn’t matter.
The reason I say this is because my daughter is currently right in the middle of caring too deeply about the perceptions of others. She is so caught up in what people think that she’s decided to employ an architect to design her home, rather than just getting one of those standard home designs. How much does an architect cost? Whatever the cost is, I’m sure that money would be better spent somewhere else. She has a young child to raise. She shouldn’t be caught up in having a bespoke home. It’s a silly and vain thing to spend money on when money is such a valuable and hard to come by asset. I wish I didn’t understand why she’s doing it, but alas, I do understand.
The fear of being found out as not only a normal, run-of-the-mill person but also a person with flaws is too scary to come to terms with. She would rather invest in the services of Melbourne’s most esteemed residential architects than have people find out who she truly is. I understand her pain, but not accepting herself is the worst possible thing she could do. Not accepting yourself leads to years of questioning your self worth. She’ll learn one day.