I am me.

One of my favourite movies is on tv tonight. It's "Easy A". A very cute, witty and charming movie loosely based around the book The Scarlet Letter. Without giving too much away, it's about a girl who accidentally gets a reputation (based on a lie) and things just snowball from there. She ends up deciding to become the girl that everyone thinks she is and how that back fires.

Being yourself isn't a new concept. Shakespeare penned the classic "To thy own self be true" roughly 400 years ago:

"This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man."
-Hamlet Act 1, Scene 3

For such a simple concept, so many people don't seem to be able to grasp it. I guess we all have an inherent desire to fit in. For others to like us and there's usually a really dumb reason behind it too. Because we want to be "cool". We want to be "popular". And what does that get us? We end up surrounded by so called "friends" who we're never sure if they really like us or not.

On those odd occasions when I think back to high school and some of the people and their shit that I put up with just because I either wanted them to like me or I simply wanted to keep the peace for the sake of someone else, my adult self wants to shake my teenage self silly.

This is one of the up sides of getting older and an up side to having been single for as long as I have. I've been able to gain a very good sense of self. I know who I am. And for the life of me, I can't think of any reason why I wouldn't always be true to myself.

American poet e e cummings said what has become one of my favourite quotes "It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are". And that's true. Growing up can be scary. And sometimes it's lonely. But it's wonderful and amazing at the same time. Being able to know myself, allows me to better connect with the people in my life. I don't need a certain number of friends, just a number of whom I'm certain. I just wish that most of them lived closer :)

If we act like ourselves and trust are true self and don't worry about trying to be someone else or try to be someone that we think other people want us to be, we'll all be happier. Actors get paid to pretend to be someone else. So why do so many people do it for free? What's the point?

I am me. It's the only person I know how to be. And it's the only person I want to be.

Good Night.

Sarah