It’s always been scarily apparent to me that it’s entirely possible to feel like you know someone really well without knowing them at all. There’s always the possibility that they’re lying to you, or they’re hiding something, or they’re trying to be someone they’re not. Humans are fundamentally selfish and deceitful creatures, so how are you ever supposed to feel secure in any sort of relationship, be it friendly, romantic, or family? Partners cheat on each other, friends deceive each other and families betray each other. Every single person you have any sort of relationship with has a completely different view of the type of person you are, so how on earth are you supposed to stay true to yourself if there’s infinite different versions of you? Some people might despise you, some people might love you and some people might be totally ambivalent, so how are you supposed to try and understand what kind of person you are? I find the notion of people ‘finding themselves’ absolutely farcical – the person you are has nothing to do with how you feel inside and everything to do with how you present yourself to others. You might believe that you’re a sweet and innocent person but if you go around acting like a prick then, I hate to break it to you, but you’re a prick. That’s what makes it scary, you can try and be what other people want you to be or you can try and be yourself but, in reality, the vast majority of people will never understand you or, even if they do understand you, they won’t care about you. It’s highly unlikely that you’ll ever have more than a handful of relationships throughout your entire life with people that actually get you. The uncertainty is daunting but it doesn’t mean you should close yourself off or give up. You will get hurt by people you thought you thought you knew when it turns out they aren’t who they say they are and you may even hurt other people, intentionally or unintentionally, but you will learn lessons from these situations, you will grow as a person and, if you refuse to dwell on the negatives, you will become a better version of yourself, confident in the fact that you have plenty to offer people and sure that you won’t be taken for granted. You will never fully understand who you are as a person but you can make sure you’re as true to yourself as you possibly can be because, regardless of how hard it might be to find people who understand you and ignoring the amount of times you could get hurt, as long as you’re comfortable with who you are, no one can stop you from being happy and, eventually, you’ll find the people you’re supposed to find. They might even have been right under your nose all along.