Pretending

So lately, I've been doing a lot less talking and a lot more listening. And thinking. I've noticed something that I kind of overlooked before: People try so hard to hide their thoughts. It seems like so many people try so hard to fit into an "image" that they don't even express their actual feelings or thoughts anymore. I realized I was falling into this pattern, too; I intentionally hide certain things so that people don't think differently of me. It's like once the world has its ideas of who you are and how you should act, we have to behave in that exact way all the time, or else people start wondering what's going on. It's so stupid; is there no such thing as individuality anmore? I find myself keeping certain things to myself and purposely giving off the image everybody wants to see. I'm tired of doing this. No one gains anything from doing this; pretending to be happy or pretending to be someone you're not is just a defense mechanism. I guess people are afraid of what people would think and what they would learn about themselves if they just let down their guards, let down their walls, and just lived to make himself or herself happy. Personally, I want to be done pretending.