*hugs*
I understand your concern about how the world is hard to accept something new; it actually is. It's needed to maintain 'order'. We all struggle with this every once in our lifetimes.
Your own path and belief will be different from mine (maybe you even have known this thing I've realized), But I'm raising a point that being sociable, getting along with people and amicable =/= being conforming. And that not being conforming =/= opposing everyone that's not with your own values. (Things I've still yet to learn.)
How to say; to me conforming is like turning yourself into a sponge absorbing all those colors outside you, ending up in a.....murky...sponge, from all those colors. Because start conforming to a group, soon it'll happen to other groups. And soon it's not ourselves anymore, or even a mask of that particular group, but a mixture of them, together best explained as messy. And let's not talk about how each traits or masks fight between each other....
So, what lies underneath our mask? Ideally speaking, put down our mask and develop your values. Stay grounded to our 'good' and 'bad'. Pick the good things, sort the bad, And then let it out and face the world. But in reality it will be way more complex than that, so... I'm saying what I know; It's better not to be swayed by the world's current, but there are lots of ways to express that other than fighting. And even if one chooses to fight, there are millions of ways to do that. Choose the least damaging strategy.
If you can accept analogues; I'd rather be a bamboo tree, bending and swinging against the wind but yet standing, rather than the big tree opposing the wind, breaking apart if the wind's strong enough.
(in short; I'm espousing non-confrontational strategies right now, as confrontational as I am.)
I think that isn't conformity. Everyone has their own stories, after all, and we all affect each other, whether we like it or not.
I think masks are often necessary, in life, you only have one true personality, and there are only a certain amount of people compatible with it.
It's best to keep the mask until you find someone you think you can trust.
As an introvert, I doubt you're into self advertising, so this shouldn't be too much of a problem for you. It matters little what they think, the only people who can matter are the ones you allow to.
Yeah... my advice: work towards a niche that most accepts the real you. Depending on how strange the real you is, you might be surprised at how accepting some people are of this true you.
If you don't conform, and stay in a place that insists you do, you'll get the short end of the stick every time.
I think this is a fine advice, But I learned that I can also be trapped into the images of 'me' that they're seeing, ending into a horrible caricature of myself, so yeah. :|
