HAVE you ever felt like waking up one day with perfect bed hair and supple skin, turning off your alarm even before it starts ringing, and blasting your favorite music as you get ready to conquer the day and embrace the challenges of adulting? Apparently, this phenomenon is called "Main Character Syndrome," a term coined by users on TikTok. Those who have "Main Character Syndrome" are said to project themselves as the protagonist, viewing their life through rose-colored glasses and romanticizing everything remotely related to them.

But, if it is inherently bad, who should we consider as the main attraction of our lives if not ourselves? Should it be our parents, our relatives, our friends, our favorite celebrities, or something else entirely? In the media we consume, from Harry Potter to Percy Jackson, Barbie, Katniss Everdeen, and other narratives centered around chaos, hijinks, romance, adventure, and cliché occurrences for the central character, it might lead us, as sleep-deprived college students, to wonder: Can we not romanticize or live a unique life within our means? Is it impossible to feel good about ourselves during such a crucial stage of our lives?

This is precisely why social media caters to these temptations and what-ifs. From Alternate Universe stories, aptly called AUs, where writers let us imagine a world where we are in a forbidden love triangle with Jungkook from BTS and Mingyu from Seventeen to self-indulgent fantasies like filming ourselves dancing to our favorite Taylor Swift songs or unboxing Sonny Angels. We should never feel guilty about feeling important because we ARE important. We are loved despite everything that prevents us from making us feel that we are not. 

It's an exhilarating feeling to be free, to feel good about ourselves, to heal our inner child, to break free from societal expectations, and, most importantly, to be the main character. Because, at the end of the day, this is your story. You are weaving each letter, word, and thought into the pages of the book that is called your life, and no one should ever take that away from you.