Anna Quindlen

Ann Quindlen believes that our relationship-priority is to ourselves; there is no need for us to be pressured into being responsible for reaching the expectations of society. The wants of many people to be perfect is ridiculously strong in this age and culture. The burden to be the individual that can be admired and respected and acknowledged by others through his/her attributes and characteristics and abilities is inescapable. We care about what other people think and how they view us, so we always strive to reach a status in society where we are, in a nutshell, perfect. But Quindlen says otherwise; she urges for us to throw away our shallow dreams of being a flawless individual and to simply, as cliché as it sounds, to follow our hearts and be ourselves. I agree with Quindlen; although many think that her perspective is a bit self-centered, I think that instead of seeking the acknowledgement of others, we should instead be seeking self-acknowledgement, and be able to look at ourselves full-on and be content and satisfied with what we see. Our weaknesses, our flaws, our imperfections, we should embrace each and every one of them and learn to live with knowing that they’re characteristics that makes up who you are; we have to disregard the notion that to have wonderful relationships with friends/family and society in general, we need to shoulder the heavy burden of meeting the demanding expectations of this world. Life is simply too short and fast for us to spend a majority of it worrying and feeling obliged to listen to the pompous claims of others who think they know what there is to know about a good life.