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Why people love to judge you

In the absence of information about you, people resort to passing judgment. To fill in the gaps, they make unfounded assumptions about your personality and character. Here are a couple of examples:

  • Because you're quiet, you must be weird, antisocial, or stuck-up.
  • Because you don't want to have kids, you must be selfish. 
  • Because you don't drink, you must be boring, religious, or uber conservative. 
  • Because you don't eat meat, you must be vegan.
  • Because you relish simplicity and have no interest in flashy gadgets, jewelry, or cars, you must not have a lot of money.
Anything that goes against the grain of society tends to be judged harshly. People frown upon those who do or say things that run counter to the so-called herd mentality. 

The fact is that you have no obligation whatsoever to justify your views, beliefs, or attitudes to anyone. While they have a right to think as they wish about you, you're entitled to live life as you wish without giving them any explanations.

The option to set the record straight is always available to you. Be leery, however, of those who try to goad you into changing. When you act or think in ways that diverge from your peers, it may make them insecure about themselves.

They then seek to reduce that cognitive dissonance in the simplest way possible: by getting you to behave more like them.

Without a doubt, peer pressure doesn't peter out in high school. People will always compare themselves to you and find something to nitpick about.

The key is never to succumb to their pressure to change who you are just to feed their ego. As long as you're happy with yourself, that's all that matters. Only you can judge yourself fairly because you know yourself better than anyone else.

I'll leave you with a few powerful quotes that speak to the power of sticking to your guns amid peer pressure and judgment:

"It takes nothing to join the crowd. It takes everything to stand alone." - Hans F. Hansen

"I think being different, going against the grain of society is the greatest thing in the world." -

"Don't judge my path if you haven't walked my journey."

"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." - Eleanor Roosevelt

"No one has the right to judge you, because np one really knows what you have been through." - GMB Akash
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