Why Caring About What People Think Matters Sometimes

Teisha LeShea
4 min readMay 29, 2023

“As an adult, I have ebbs and flows of whether I want to be liked.”

A painting of an off centered purple door with a tall green plant next to the door. The plant pot looks grey with hints of purple. On the other side of the door is a window with yellow flowers that arch over the door and a smaller pot next to that one with white flowers with the same-colored pot of grey with hints of purple. The door looks wooden but also purple.
Photo by David Clode on Unsplash

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Prompt: How much do you care what other people think of you and why? Is it only certain people or all people? How do you feel when someone simply doesn’t like you?

I’ve been thinking about this prompt since Ruby Noir 😈tagged me, and my first answer was impulsive. Which was “hell no.” After I answered, another voice screamed that I was lying. This minor conflict made it difficult to write. When facing hard truths, I become avoidant.

Although I want authenticity, I don’t trust my readers sometimes. I don’t trust that they will read my work with an open mind. A lot of my pieces on Medium are politically correct. I’m one of those people who doesn’t want to offend or create a stir behind my words. I’m a people pleaser, and I hate that aspect of myself.

The voice that called me a liar is the one that yells, “Man, the f*ck up.” If you’re new to my writing for clarity, I’m not a man. I am an overly sensitive ass woman who becomes detached from reality sometimes.

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