10 things we had to unlearn as adults

noah210/Pixabay

As kids, we embraced everything we were taught in schools and at home. We never questioned them. Never thought twice about things. They just were. A part of life and a part of us.

Then, we grow older. We see more of the world for ourselves, and not through filters that people forced on us.

Discarding these filters is the first step to unlearning what we had learned as children. Unlearning things like “girls belong in the kitchen” and that “boys are not supposed to cry.”

Here are some more things we have to unlearn when we grow up.

1. We should always respect adults

Even though you don’t get the same respect back.

Stevepb/Pixabay

2. Parents are always right

No, they’re not. They always want the best for you, but they’re not always right.

I started noticing the rust around the pedestal I’d put my parents on, after I turned 18 and left home.

StockSnap/Pixabay

3. There’s only one true religion

And that’s the religion you’re born into.

A friend of mine once told me that he jumped out of a bus after a man of another faith got in, because he had been told that anything other than his own religion was bad.

pixel2013/Pixabay

4. Love is forever

Love will not feed you. It doesn’t last. It doesn’t save you.

You cannot make a home out of people.

Free-Photos/Pixabay

5. Happiness will always find you

They taught me about happiness as if it was something tangible and constant.

They taught me about monsters under my bed, and witches who’d devour children who didn’t listen.

They didn’t mention the demons inside myself that would haunt me most nights in the years to come.

RoonZ-nl/Pixabay

6. Being quiet is undesirable

This one made me hate the very shape that made me ME.

Why couldn’t I be like anyone other than myself?

Why didn’t I have words and laughter like others?

But then I realized, isn’t the world loud enough already?

Republica/Pixabay

7. Studying is the most important thing in life

This one is made up of bad choices, misguided decisions and compromises we were never supposed to make.

They took away our childhood and drilled into our minds that studying will get you everywhere. Is that why millions of educated people are unemployed and unhappy?

I wish they’d let us dream as kids.

JessBaileyDesign/Pixabay

8. Tears mean weakness

They taught us as kids that crying is a childish response to things that hurt us.

They taught us that crying is irrational and weak.

And people laugh at weakness.

rubberduck1951/Pixabay

9. What will others think of you?

This question haunts me to this day, still.

This is how I learned to measure my self- worth, through other people’s eyes.

pixel2013/Pixabay

10. I’m not like other girls

Who are these “other girls” that we want to denounce so bad?

And when did we give in to patriarchy this way?

931527/Pixabay