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

"Something Wicked This Way Comes"

The title of tonight's blog doesn't really reflect the day I have. I picked it because it's one of my favourite lines in my second favourite Shakespeare play. It's a line from Act IV, Scene 1 in MacBeth. As it true with a lot of Shakespeare's quotes, it's only half the line. The full line is: "By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes."

I mention this because I spent the day in Stratford, Ontario with my parents. We went and saw "Much Ado About Nothing" at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. It was awesome. I don't remember Much Ado being that funny, perhaps due to the fact that I was more than a decade younger when I first encountered it. Seeing it come to life was wonderful. Beatice is one of the few female Shakespeare characters who's strong and doesn't meet a fatal end. I really love her. One of my favourite lines of her is " I'd rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear that he loves me". Her battle of the wits with Benefick is definitely one of Shakespeare's best examples of writing. And it's friggin hysterical.

The long and the short of it is that Beatrice refuses to settle for any man, just for the sake of marriage. She believes that love and marriage are a curse, and so does the man she ends up marrying. I think I like the character so much because I can relate to her. I like to think that I'm just as witty as she is, but I'm not quite so mean. And I'm not willing to settle either. Yes, I'm single. Yes, I've been single for a very long time. Unlike Beatrice, I do believe in love and marriage, but like her, I will not settle just for the sake of not being single anymore. I'd rather be single and happy than married and miserable. I enjoy being a strong, independent woman. I just wouldn't mind having someone to protect me from time to time when I opt to let my guard down. And cuddle with. And steal kisses from. LOL. You get my point.

I really do love Shakespeare. Whether you believe he truly existed or not, his works have stood the test of time. I'd love to be able to write something that one day that would still be relevant and enjoyed 500 years from now.

Not entirely sure what we're up to tomorrow. My dad is going golfing and my mom and I are going grocery shopping. In the afternoon, my niece and nephew are being dropped off for a few hours so that I can spend some time with them. I have to admit, I'm slowly getting used to being around kids. I'm still leery about it, but they're drawing me in!

"Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow,
That I shall say good night till it be morrow."
(bonus points if you know which play that's from...without resorting to Google!)

Sarah