A pumpkin spice latte with a cinnamon roll, please. 

My order of choice the moment October starts? A pumpkin spice latte, of course. We are always trying to be different, have a unique taste, be unlike the others. Well, I’m tired of that. I don’t want to be different; I don’t want to be a one-of-a-kind human being all the time. I can like things that are popular and not at all original, and to go even further, I will embrace that. I’m tired of the things everyone, or almost everyone, likes being called basic. You know what? I’m basic! Everyone is basic! We are all just a copy of each other, following trends and popular things just for the fun of it. That is not that big of a deal at all. 

I will rebrand the idea of being basic to be relatable. Liking to drink a hot coffee with pumpkin spice flavour in fall is not basic, is relatable. Liking to buy the new top every influencer and their mother is wearing is not basic. It’s relatable. And posting the same TikTok dance that everyone else is doing right now doesn’t make you basic; it makes you relatable. You aren’t a copy of a copy. You are just doing something familiar to what others are also doing. You are not unoriginal. You are identifiable. 

My problem with the concept of being deemed ‘basic’ is that it stops people from doing what they want to do. You aren’t listening to the song that you like just because a coworker said that liking that band was basic. You aren’t getting your Starbucks coffee because you saw a video of a girl calling it a basic girl activity. What if it is basic? You do what you like, no matter what. In the end, is it bad to be basic? It is just liking something that is liked by most. What you like is not something for people who lack a personality. It’s just a popular thing designed for the masses to, in fact, like. So you are just enjoying doing something fun that most people like doing, not washing out your personality. 

Nowadays, it feels like people are purposely trying to fit in by not liking the most popular things. Before, it was the other way around. People were trying to hide their true selves and pretend to like mainstream things. Now the problem is being too into the popular things. I don’t think people should be pretending to like anything at all. You like what you like. If you want to listen to that song that was made popular through social media, do so. If you want to like the edgy band with 100 monthly listeners, then do that. But don’t hide your true personality and likes just to fit in. That always turns south. Is better to be a basic girl who enjoys what she does than to be an angry person who hates what others like or whatever is popular.