In middle school, I received a dreaded 3 way phone call from my friends, and they lectured me about all of the things I needed to change about myself to be less annoying. I hung up, determined to change the way I talked, dressed, and interacted with others. 

I realized a couple of years later that I didn’t need to change myself, I needed new friends. While I have since grown up and embraced my flaws, I still think to this day about the things that made me “annoying” and sometimes wonder if I had changed them, if I would have had a different life…