Don’t be a Blind Ape for Friendship’s Sake!

Let’s assume you are the kind of person who is unable to find someone of your age who matches your interests and tastes. You feel lonely and want some company. So, you decide to follow people of your age in every way. You sing, dance, draw or attend parties with people, thinking they will like you in turn and befriend you. Whether it’s really the thing YOU want to do doesn’t bother you because you want to combat the insecurity of loneliness. And in that pursuit, you lose your sense of who you are and what matters to you. You are blindly aping your peers to gain their friendship.

Sometimes, you dismiss your preference and adopt a new one. Take, for example, dressing; you shun your style and begin to dress like your peers for want of socialising. At first, you might feel happy being accepted or befriended, but it becomes an obsession over time. Before you go out every time, you will begin to feel the need to choose the outfit that’s acceptable to your peers or makes you look like ‘one with them’. Without realising it, you will slowly be eroding your identity.

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