Lael Stone

Like you never know what's happening for a person.

being aware of that and keeping that in the back of our mind.

But just to touch on what you said before, yeah, it's so hard, I think, to stay true to yourself whilst also trying to get by.

Like high school is so tricky in, you know, society telling us to do all these different things and that we're expected to move this way, act this way, look this way.

And I think a big thing for me, same with when I was leaving school, I really struggled at school because I

I didn't want to fit in and do the things that everyone else was doing.

But also if you didn't do that, then you would get exiled.

Like it was this really tricky in between.

And I remember I was, I showed you a video of this the other week.

I remember the first day after I'd finished, I left school before I started at VCAL and I took myself out into the city and I just put a cute outfit on.

I literally just got sushi and sat in the corner somewhere at the state library.

But yeah,

I just cried and cried because it was this, oh, my God, I can go do this and I don't have to think about what anyone else thinks.

I can put on whatever I want to put on.

I can dye my hair whatever colour I want to do that.

And it was this freedom to fully tap into being me and not feeling that judgment.

And honestly, since I left school, I feel like I've just gone straight down that path and I don't really think about what other people think of me anymore because it is exhausting trying to fit into a box that society tells us we should fit into and

So, yeah, it's just why would I waste any more time trying to please other people when I'm the one that I should be pleasing, you know?

Just really saying, how do you be true to you when we're part of systems that want you to conform into something else?

And that's so hard, isn't it?