One Sunday afternoon in March, one of my best friends and I decided to go see “Divergent” in theaters. Farrah was about to leave for Germany for four months, and I was bored. Actually, I was procrastinating, but Farrah was about to leave, so putting off schoolwork was clearly OK in this situation.

I hadn’t read the books and was a little skeptical, mostly because I wasn’t sure how well Shailene Woodley would do. After all, I only knew her from ABC’s family The Secret Life of the American Teenager. But then there was Theo James. Although I was probably one of the five people that watched it, he had starred in a CBS show, Golden Boy, that my roommate and I had loved.

And he didn’t disappoint, and Woodley pleasantly surprised me.

I, like so many others, have gotten caught up in this post-apocalyptic, alternative society genre. Ever since I read “Brave New World” in high school, I have absolutely loved this exploration of a new, generally restrictive, society built to replace the one in which we currently live.

What’s interesting about Veronica Roth’s setup is that is based off of a kind of personality test, a computer simulation that functions as a Sorting Hat (yes, I also am a Harry Potter fan). There are five factions: Dauntless (representing bravery), Abnegation (representing selflessness), Erudite (representing intelligence), Amity (representing peace) and Candor (representing truth).

The idea the founders of the society believed in was that each of these principles, bravery, selflessness, intelligence, peace and truth, together worked for the greater good of the community. Within each faction, the individual quality was encouraged, nurtured and sharpened.

What I liked most about this idea was that each person has individual strengths that can be used to contribute to those around us. Some of us are blessed with patience, others ingenuity. Neither is less important because the collective community needs both to survive.

This premise applies to our modern society when we are faced with impossible standards. For women, we must the impeccable wardrobe of Kate Middleton, the intelligence of Madam Curie, the sense of philanthropy of Mother Theresa, all while working toward having the fitness of Jillian Michaels, the craftiness of a Pinterest mom, the cooking skills of Rachel Ray and the décor of Martha Stewart. And we simply can’t do it.

I would certainly not suggest that men don’t face similar pressures, but I am less familiar with them.

In a society that seems to value rugged individualism, we send a lot of messages urging people to fit into a mold. After all, we’ve only got one chance to get it right and really no one can have all the qualities of the “ideal” woman or man.

Today, I challenge you to do one thing you genuinely enjoy, whatever that may be. That one thing you’ve been dying to do all week, but you just haven’t had time do it. Make time.

Everybody has responsibilities, whether it’s work-related, family-related or whatever-related, but if you spend all your time pleasing others, who’s worried about making you happy?

If we each work on our own strengths, our own passions, our own talents, together we can make this world just a little bit more beautiful.

Julia V. Pendley is the lifestyles editor of The Daily Leader. You may email her at julia.pendley@dailyleader.com or mail a letter to her at Julia V. Pendley, Lifestyles Editor, P.O. Box 551, Brookhaven, MS 39602-0551.