A few days ago I watched on TV the MTV Video Music Awards 2010 – also known as VMA. This year the ceremony took place on September 12th, in Los Angeles. I am sure that many of you know what this is about; the cable network MTV awards every year young singers – that’s why it is also called the ”Oscars for youth”.
This year Lady Gaga became the pop artist of the year with thirteen nominations and eight awards won. I don’t think there are many people in this world who haven’t even heard about her. An eccentric singer who shocks the public with her music, declarations and clips.
I must say that I do not particularly consider her a model for me or other teenagers. And I’m not writing this article to talk about “Lady Gaga phenomenon”. Actually, there is a part of this weird singer – like many of us may have dubbed her – that I would like to mark out.
Despite the fact that the others consider her unusual, bizarre, not talented, desperate for publicity and give her other negative attributes, she has the courage to be who she really is. But she also has lots of fans who can see beyond her crazy performances. They understand her music, lyrics and all the feelings that she lived and wants to hand over.
And I think we all can learn a big lesson from her – especially us, the teenagers. Many of us care so much to fit in a group, to be part of something, that we are capable of shameful compromises. We forget who we are because of the lack of courage and trust in ourselves. We forget that each of us is different and that’s exactly what makes life prettier: the new things that we find in the ones around us.
When we face a challenge, when we can show our selfhood in front of others, we usually give up. We let the fears, inhibitions and negative thoughts kill the confidence in ourselves. We prefer to let others enjoy our chance, we can’t break the ice, because “What would the others say if…?”.
I read somewhere a thing that I think is true: “there will always be around you people with little aims – most of them – and people who dream about flying with the eagles. They are considered people insane who think that can change the world. Despite of all the scepticism, the ones that live strong thrills are the ones with enterprising dreams.”
And I must confess that I really appreciate the few people who are conscious about their own value – people who are not afraid to be against the entire world, to express their own and unique opinions, even if they are wrong. But they are real, they show their personality. It’s so comfortable for us to say that we agree with the majority and sustain the same idea.
Maybe that’s not something general in the entire world nowadays, but I’m telling this from what I’ve seen in real life. I’m trying to promote as much as I can the self-confidence and the courage to be you with your thoughts, feelings, experiences and hopes. Because if we are all the same and we let us handled by the mediocre majority, we finish by being part of it.
Sometimes it is very hard for me, and maybe I am not the only one, but I just want to advice everyone, especially adolescents to be themselves and risk to do something wrong – you know, we learn so much from our own mistakes and they usually bring an improvement to our personality.
