Accept whoever You are for You are worth more than half baked opinions.

It doesn't matter whether you are someone who cares about the world or are emotionally detached, someone who  judges or is judged, selfless or selfish, smart or dumb, beautiful or ugly, whatever and whoever you are, all you need to do is to accept yourself through and through, so that eventually you are able to accept those around you. The first step to accepting the world is through the acceptance of yourself - the hardest thing to do let me tell you. Accepting the pretty parts is quite easy compared to accepting the dark and the ugly parts of yours and especially those decisions that you think were never yours. Even though, I believe that every decision is ours whether we like to accept it or not because the only thing that is from others is their advices. Many would argue that they never had a choice nor were they given the liberty to decide from amongst those advices rather those decisions were imposed on them. Undoubtedly, that could be the case but at the end of the day it was your choice, your decision to give in, to be subdued, to feel compelled to do as instructed because you had a choice, a pretty nasty one but a choice nonetheless to rebel, to resist and to fight till the very end for what you believed in and I know its easier said than done but that my friend is the truth for it was another possibility with a lower probability of success. By no means do I want you to feel bad for being subdued or for never standing up for what you believed in because there was another more important reason for you to be doing it which could be not disrespecting your elders and creating a ruckus, being beholden to somebody, dependency, unbearable physical and mental abuse and the fear of death etc. Whatever your reason was, remember it was the best decision that you took and there is no need to regret it because if you are again met with the same circumstances, the same frame of mind and the same level of experience, you will choose the same option again.

Therefore, it doesn't matter whether you are someone who follows his passion or whether you are someone who is following his parents dreams and aspirations because both of these options are commendable and none of them guarantees success. What may have brought glory to one may not necessarily do so for you because life doesn't go by the principle of 1+1=2, it could be 22 , 81 or a million and we need to accept this reality.

My mother once told me a story about a grandfather who gave a gem to his grandson to price it out but admonished him from selling it. The grandson went to a fruit vendor who told him that in exchange for this gem he would give him a dozen oranges, then he went to a shopkeeper who was ready to pay him Rs 2000 for this gem and lastly, he went to a jeweller who was shocked to see such a priceless gem in a hand of a kid for which he offered 10 million. The kid went back to his grandfather and narrated his experience. His grandfather then told him that he was like this gem who would be priced out by different people his entire life according to their limited knowledge and perception about his worth. But there'd be only one person who could truly be able to appreciate his worth and that person would be him and him alone. Many would claim to know his true potentials and capabilities but none except him would be truly able to judge his worth and none should be given the reins to decide what he is worth as a person. Because this life is the only thing that we are entitled to, the only thing that belongs to us, that we will be questioned about and that only we have the right to dictate. 

And so, it doesn't matter if we let other people hold onto those reins for a while and help guide us onto those trodden paths or we hold those reins ourselves, what truly matters is that we accept whatever decisions we make in life and learn from our mistakes. Because at the end of the day, there were many options to choose from yet, at that point in time we chose a certain option for it seemed the best from amongst them all. We may have misjudged but what is bygone is bygone and accepting those flaws is the key to survival because to err is human. In short, accept every aspect of yourself,  your decisions, your shortcomings, your lifestyle etc. and always remember that your worth is not defined by the validation you receive from other people in the form of likes or appreciation. You matter and everything associated with you matters however, insignificant it may seem to others!