Social Acceptance Essay

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Social acceptance. For some, acceptance is creating an identity. Especially high school students believe that by associating themselves with a distinct interest group that it will characterize who they are. Albert Ellis, an American psychologist and one of the originators of the cognitive revolutionary paradigm shift in psychotherapy and the founder of cognitive-behavioral therapies, said that,” Acceptance is not love. You love a person because he or she has lovable traits, but you accept everybody just because they’re alive and human.” The feeling of being accepted is human nature, and the ironic part is that some have no clue as to why they want to fit in. My observation is that high school is one of the main places where people think that social acceptance is the key to life; they feel as though being “popular” is crucial to survival. Well its not true. If you spend all your time trying to find out how to be socially accepted, that’s time wasted when you could use that time to excel in life and in making a name for yourself. To be truly enlightened with yourself you must learn to break away from the chains of conformity, only then will you get to move on with your life and be free; and enlightenment is key. I have heard many students refer to high school as a “prison”. In a way it is to some extent true. Think about it, you have your cell which is your own thoughts that you are trapped in by the chains of conformity and social acceptance, with society as the prison warden making it seem as though being different is a crime, and the only way to get out is by going against the social norms and break free from the chains of conformity and getting out of the cell that suppresses your individualism. Just because you graduate high school doesn’t mean you are free from that “prison”, you will continue to carry the chains of conformity and social acceptance, until

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