Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Be Who You Are and Say What You Feel

"Because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind." Oh Doctor Seuss. You always know exactly the right thing to say. I was thinking a lot today about pleasing people. It seems all my life I have had this need for people to like me…and now I’m over it. I have grown up so much in the last three years, and the best lesson I have learned is that not everyone is going to like who you are as a person. And that’s totally okay. I have attempted over the years to change aspects of myself so I could fit in with a certain group of people. It became really exhausting. I’m not sure if I can pin point the exact moment I stopped caring what people thought about me. In fact, I’m still working on it - M can vouch for this fact since she gets the brunt of my phone calls when I’m panicking over what this person or that person thinks about me. However, I have definitely gotten much better. Perhaps it was a drama filled senior year of high school that made me say, “Is this going to matter in twenty years?” Turns out it won’t. Or maybe it was the fact that I felt much more comfortable being me and not what others wanted me to be. I knew a change had to occur or else I was going to be a very unhappy college girl.

I’ve become a very vocal person in my late teens and early twenties simply because I care. I care about my country, I care about my friends, and I care about my family. I’m going to be outspoken. I shouldn’t have to apologize for being aware and strong-willed. Those are the two things I love most about myself! Some people may not be able to handle my outspokenness, and that’s okay. I refuse to change who I am as a person so others can tolerate me. At the end of the day, the person they want does not exist, so what’s the point? I know the people I can count on love me for every part of me – even the frustrating, annoying parts, and that is all that matters. It really is kind of liberating. I have finally given myself permission to be exactly who I’m supposed to be.

I really hope others will join me. I’m going to sing as loud as I can, dance as crazy as I can, debate political events until I’m heard, watch lousy TV and enjoy it, call home wherever I please, get jobs in any area that I find interesting and I will not apologize to anyone for these things. I would hope people have more meaningful things to do with their lives than focus on me anyway. I will never hurt people intentionally, I will try to spread love to every person on this planet, and I will say when I am wrong, but there is nothing wrong with being the person you were born to be. I will never listen to dream killers. I will succeed, I will love life, and I will dream dreams that seem impossible, knowing in my heart that nothing is truly impossible. It may seem silly, but I feel like I have a protective shield surrounding me from negative people. I am living the dream in every way, and nothing/no one will bring me down. Life is so good right now. Why waste it caring what others think?

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