Dear Stranger, I Know How You Feel

by Ashish Bagrecha

I see you trying to attain perfection, trying to conform to society’s standards of what perfection should be. I know that you have morphed and changed so many times that you no longer know who you are. You do not understand anymore who you are supposed to be, or what makes you unique and special. But I see who you really are, and I understand the pressure of keeping up with the demands of the perfect life you expect of yourself. I know that you no longer know what is expected of you because you no longer know what you expect from yourself. I see you lost and drifting in your fake world—depressed, lonely and scared. I see you lying in bed at night, scrolling through your friends’ feeds, jealous and aching for something real. Some real fun, real connections, real friends. You are struggling with your life choices, trying to make a decision, trying desperately to know where you fit in all of this. You are convinced that people expect you to be something you feel you are not. You compare yourself to others and feel that you should be as successful as they are. That you should at least have achieved what they have by now. You lie in bed berating yourself for not knowing where you fit in, tearing your self-esteem to shreds. You had expected life to be different, for this phase to turn out exactly as you had planned, and now you are so lost that without the good opinion of the people you hold in high regard, you feel you are nothing. You feel that you no longer occupy a meaningfu...