Cheap Shots, Expensive Score

"To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best day and night to make you everyone else, means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight, and never stop fighting." -E.E. Cummings. How profound would it be, if people up and told you that you could never be yourself? That their aim and goal in life is your destruction? How absurd it that? Reading a quote like this would strike a person as odd, because you'd never think this to be true. One side of society is all about individuality, personal rights, expression, and the like. The other side, about conformity and being superficial. I think the second thought is ridiculous. I believe that we should live true to ourselves, regardless of the possible repercussions. Regardless of the outcomes, of possible lost relationships, of possible anything, being true to yourself is a rule I try to live by on a daily basis. For years, I have fought, from the outside looking in. I constantly struggled with self-image, self-confidence, and relationships with others. I had an image of how I was supposed to be, yet failed to measure up. I figured that being like everybody else is all that mattered. I hungered for attention and craved acceptance. However, I was emotionally malnourished. I believe that I had faced the worst years of my life in junior high. From finding myself, my identity, my beliefs, my sexuality, my faith, I went through so much life change. I went through friendships like outfits for a date. I constantly would adapt to different people and situations, compromising my beliefs for lies, just to fit in. I never realized how much it would cost me. For such cheap actions, the results were expensive. I look back on my younger years and I realize how over-rated popularity isand everything else can be. I realize that being fake only hurt me in the end. I had damaged potentially awesome friendships, I damaged my self-worth, and I had damaged my life by being fake. I look upon how I handle things then compared to today. That by allowing myself to open up, be real, be honest, that I have gained more genuine friendships. Out with the old, in with the new. I have won respect. I have learned from past mistakes and grown. E.E. Cummings is right…To be myself, in a world where I'm being pulled to be like everyone else, is a constant perpetual battle. How about you? Is it really worth being yourself, if there is such a price to pay? I think so. This is my personal philosophy.