I'm sick of being thought of as 'perfect!'

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U2democrat

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At church I'm the PK (preacher's kid) AND the oldest of the youth (the only rising senior). People tend to think that I excell in school, my life is rainbows and sunshine, i get along with my parents, and that i NEVER do ANYTHING wrong. I'm sick of being percieved as someone that i'm not! I wanna go into church one day and completely f*** things up, especially since i only have a year left before i go off to college (i can't wait until i'm outta there). Also, since i'm the PK, i'm OBLIGATED to volunteer for everything. I have a life outside of church! Friends, school, my work for the campaign. It sucks. Anyway that's my rant. :rant:
 
I don't know what to say except don't do drugs to try to be a bad ass once you're in collage cause then you'll really fuck up. :roll: I know how you feel. Believe me I know a lot about angst. For some bastard reason people think that I have to do everything in a perfect way, everybody around me has amazingly high expectations about me. It's incredibly suffocating to live with that. And the thing is that I have no clue why in the hell they have such big expectations. In the end I feel like I don't do anything right. A complete fuck up. Have you ever discussed this with your parents? Maybe it would be a good thing. All I can tell you is to be who you are and don't try to fake an attitude. Once you're in collage things will be a little more different I guess, the taste of independence will make you feel better.


BTW have you ever listened to Bruce Springsteen? To me he is the person that can talk about angst, anxiety and this kind of suffocating feelings better than any grunge band or any other artist put there. Listen to the song Badlands and Darkness On The Edge Of Town, the words on those songs will reach you. Good luck! :up:
 
Thanks, no i don't want do do anything STUPID like drugs and crap. There's no benefit. I do listen to Bruce Springsteen, and especially John Mellencamp (see "IO: I'm addicted to John Mellencamp"). I find Mellencamp's "Authority Song" very true. The chorus, "When i fight authority, authority always wins/I've been doin it since i was a youngin and i come out grinnin'/When i fight authority, authority always wins" is like my life's story.
 
You'll be out soon (although it seems like a long time to you now), and then you will be able to make decisions for yourself. Even now I would strongly suggest that you begin looking at things that are different than what you deal with in your life -- check out other religions, read philosophy books, dig into different music, read about other countries...all this may help you feel a bit less stifled. And the checking other religions is a great way to rebel for a PK! Trust me on that. I'm not a preacher's kid (but I have friends that are), but my dad was a huge religious fanatic, and there isn't much that freaks people out than a PK looking at OTHER religions!! GASP!!! It's great both for shock value and it's actually good to learn about other cultures, even if you don't share the belief.
 
Mr. BAW said:
Almost like the movie Footloose...:der:

LOL its not that bad...but now that i think of it, if my parents knew about the bumping and grinding of dance that's popular they'd flip. but then, considering i have no flow or rythym that's not really a problem.

Indra, great idea about me checking out other religions, even if i stick to what i believe (which i think i will, my church is very liberal and i'm happy with that.)
 
I know exactly what you're saying.. same story here... and it sucks!!! mostly because before you finally realize, you're lost trying to please everyone, and you don't even know yourself anymore, or what you really want!
It's very frustrating... my strategy lately has been.. sort of dissapointing people, following my heart, even if it's gonna hurt some people.. it's my life, after all.

I remember reading a Bono interview not too long ago... where bono said that he learned from Bob Dylan (i think) that you shouldn't live up to people expectations, that people shouldn't expect things from you, and that it's ok to dissapoint them, to give them a lesson!!! .. this is what i think / remember... don't take it literally, but you get the idea!

Sometimes it's your own family and closest friends that hurt you the most... with their expectations, and projecting their frustration on us...Just follow your heart, and as dr. wayne Dyer says: "become independent of the good opinion of others"
 
The only suggestion I will make is this, which is basically a recapitulation of everything that's already been said:

We often feel that when people expect us to do good things, that we are obligated to do them. This is not the case. At the end of the day, no matter what people expect of you, your choices are still your own, and there's a reason that you make the ones you do. You are given the choice to do good things, or not to do good things, and ultimately what reflection will lead you to realise is that you shouldn't be doing good things for the sake of others because they expect it of you, nor should you do good things to keep yourself out of trouble with your folks, nor should you do good things because it is convenient at the time and serves a personal end: you should be doing good things for the sake of goodness itself. Sometimes its okay to say 'I will cause [myself] more harm than I will give [others] goodness, so I really ought to (stay home and do homework)/(sit down and relax so I don't burn myself out)/(focus on task a because it is more important than task b)'. My opinion on the matter is that your only real obligation is to Goodness as an ideal, which you sometimes have to fulfill in a manner that people will see as totally selfish -- but fuck them and their shortsightedness -- the trend of your actions over the course of your lifetime will determine whether or not you have succeeded in being the best person you can be. Let them call you selfish and uncaring; because you will know that you aren't, as will anyone else willing to look beyond the present. I would even go so far as to say that fulfilling the short-term desires of other people might even hinder your ability to do greater things later on in your life, and as such, might lessen the overall goodness that you are capable of doing - your obligations then, lie not with those individuals, but with the higher long-term cause: if you sway to the will of the individuals, and in doing so do not fulfill your duty to Goodness, then you're basically failing them anyway, as well as failing yourself.

You are completely right to be frustrated when someone demands you do something now that will adversely effect your future. As Emerson would say, 'you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it' but in reality you are the only one who, through contemplation of nature (read: human nature, and the divine laws of nature) and intuition, know what's best for yourself. People might be pissed at you for not doing what they want, but what they want may not be what is truly good.

As far as I'm concerned, experience is the only way we come to know truth, and there are times when we learn what is good by experiencing 'bad' things. Try to keep everything in perspective. Obviously, rebelling in a destructive manner by becoming a hoodlum/vandal/thug/drug addict isn't going to be good for you, and you realise that, which is why you've already said you wouldn't go that far. It wouldn't be good for others, but it wouldn't be good for you either. My only word of caution is that you should not presume what you want to be what is good; we all must learn to desseminate the two, and strive to do what is best. Sometimes that will be what is best for us, sometimes that will be what is best for others; but we should all want to do what is best, always, even though now and then it may be inconvenient to us.

If I may alter what julianamendoza concluded with slightly... become Good independent of others' opinions of what constitutes good.


Anyway, best of luck to you :)

Cheers.
 
The only thing I would suggest is to not let anyone else tell you how to live your life. Always remember to question everything and form your own opinions of things outside of your parents and your church. It's a big world out there with many kinds of people. You're very young still. Do it your own way. Assert yourself. Don't let others make decisions for you.
 
HelloAngel said:
The only thing I would suggest is to not let anyone else tell you how to live your life. Always remember to question everything and form your own opinions of things outside of your parents and your church. It's a big world out there with many kinds of people. You're very young still. Do it your own way. Assert yourself. Don't let others make decisions for you.


I agree with the above and the thing below.....


























footloose2.JPG



:D

:|


Sorry.
 
whoa.....i had forgotten about this thread. It's over a year old! :ohmy:


a LOT has changed since i started this thread...i'm on my own in college now. it's very nice. I'm very content with the way my life is going, honestly, it really couldn't get any better than it is now. I'm looking forward to going to church since the election and skipping around in front of those who treated me like :censored: because I was a Tim Kaine supporter. I can also rub it in their faces that I've since become a friend of his...and am bound to get a job working for him in the summers.

How ironic...my form of rebelling is by being successful beyond their expectations...:huh: I'll take it though! :D
 
....I can see myself in the future looking at you in the news being elected for something very important.
:up:

Go get 'em!!!


(Just no more pictures of your dirty room...:laugh: ..they will use them against you!)
 
RedrocksU2 said:
....I can see myself in the future looking at you in the news being elected for something very important.
:up:

Go get 'em!!!


(Just no more pictures of your dirty room...:laugh: ..they will use them against you!)

:lmao:

I hope you're right though :up:
 
Hey U2democrat,

I’m glad things are going better for you now; college is a wonderful way to get away.

I noticed in another thread that you live in Richmond. I do as well. If you still endorse the church you grew up in I’d like to know which one it is. I’ve recently had some stuff going on, on the religion front (I posted a thread in the goal is soul, if you care to read it) so I’m looking for a good church when I’m ready to go back. If you don’t want to post the church name here please email me: pattip2000 (at) hotmail (dot) com

Thanks
 
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