en I realized conformity is suicide, a conspiracy against every person as an individual, against the content of every character, talent, thought, or quirk. There was a time in my life when just expressing myself would alienate me into shame because I had a 'different' idea to represent. My ideas and opinions eventually grew quiet, and later became silent. Then, there was the day I realized that nothing could be more sacred than that of my own thoughts. 'Good' and 'bad' are only names. The only thing that can be right is what I value, and the only things that can be wrong are what I hold against that. I know that the pressure to conform has affected my generation astronomically. We live in the age where all across the country people are eating the exact same Big Mac's, and shopping at the same Abercrombie & Fitch. The unique and independently owned businesses have been replaced by chain stores appearing in every city of every state. Blocks and blocks of identical houses line up in rows. Gap and Old Navy are mass-producing more copies than all the genetic engineers and at a speed Xerox machines could only dream of reaching. The pressure to conform is inevitable and hard to fight.Conformity is pasted and thrown all over society. No single person can hide from it, or even deny that it has not affected their lives. Conformity may seem like a battle impossible to win. It is a battle that will kill a persons character, and the only way one can save their self is through honest realization of its effects....
