21 Things You Shouldn’t Feel Guilty About

21 Things You Shouldn't Feel Guilty About

AUG. 19, 2013 

By CHELSEA FAGAN

1. Moving to a new city for a job prospect that you really want to pursue, even if that means you’re going to have to leave a lot behind (and you might encounter the occasional “You think you’re too good for us?”).

2. Deleting people off of Facebook who are constantly spouting off political or social stuff that makes you extremely upset, or feel personally attacked.

3. Defending your positions against something that someone said on social media, even if people will tell you that it’s “not worth it” to get into a debate on the internet.

4. Spending what others might perceive to be “a lot” of money on something that you’ve been working hard and saving up for.

5. Leaving your job to work one that makes you happy. Just because not everyone can find a job right now does not mean that you are obligated to stay in one you hate.

6. Refusing to do unpaid internships if you cannot afford to do them, and accepting the repercussions that may have on your professional prospects.

7. Not calling someone back who has been trying over and over again to pursue a relationship and has just refused to get the point that you are not interested.

8. Telling someone off (harshly, if needed) who catcalls you in the street.

9. Someone that you care about doing things that hurt themselves, despite your efforts to help them and show them that you love them. Imagining that it’s your fault isn’t going to magically make them better, it will only ensure that both of you suffer.

10. Having a happy childhood with steady financial resources. Not everyone will have it, and you should be aware of that, but aimless guilt will do nothing. The only good you can do is work on opening more doors for the people who didn’t have such good fortune.

11. Feeling good about your body, and not feeling any desire to change the way it looks. It doesn’t meant that you’re narcissistic, it just means that you’ve managed to beat the system that depends financially on you not being satisfied with your appearance.

12. Deciding that you do want to make a change, and lose weight, or tone, or get some kind of surgery to fix something that you perceive as wrong. There is nothing shallow about wanting to feel better, and it’s no one’s business wht you can or cannot improve.

13. Having a healthy, fruitful relationship that leaves you feeling fulfilled and wanting to settle down at a time when other people may feel it is too soon.

14. Deciding that you don’t want to settle down with someone, even if you’ve been together for a long time and it would “make sense” to stay together.

15. Not giving a good god damn about fashion or trends or knowing different designers, and just wearing the things that make you feel good and which you believe look good on you.

16. Listening to music that everyone else makes fun of, or assumes you listen to “ironically” (as if that isn’t the most depressing concept in the whole wide world).

17. Eating some junk food that you were craving. (Don’t listen to those haters who ask if you if you’re “really going to eat that,” they are just petty and jealous of your luxurious jalapeño poppers.)

18. Deciding that you don’t want to drink, either for one night out or for the foreseeable future, because it isn’t right for you for whatever reason. Don’t let people pressure you into feeling like that makes you a bad or lame person.

19. Deciding you just wanna get white girl wasted and party all night, and shamelessly ordering Long Islands from 8 PM on.

20. Staying home from an event because you were really sick and needed to take care of yourself. Even if a thousand people text you about “COME ON DON’T BE A PUSSY WHO CARES ABOUT MONO,” don’t allow that to force you into going to the party anyway and infecting everyone with your quarantine-needing germs.

21. Cutting someone out of your life who was abusive, even if everyone else thought they were just “such a nice person,” because they never acted that way to them personally. You understand that someone can be abusive andalso great in their community, or to their family, or to their other friends. And your mental health or physical safety is infinitely more important than the confusion of the people who didn’t understand the dynamics of the situation.