Be Yourself At All Times

byidb1977

196 followers

6 years ago

A couple of days ago, I read an article about raising children, and I didn't particularly care for it. It mainly blamed that the friends with whom the child chose to associate were essentially an "evil and detrimental influence" on the said child.

Though choosing one's friends wisely is important, one has to have his or her own moral compass in order to be able make that kind of choice appropriately. I learned (sometimes the hard way) from both good and bad decisions I made over the years, and I wouldn't really change any of it. Having parents who choose their child's friends and/or essentially attempt to live their lives for them (in my opinion) aren't really doing them any favors.

"...now you know you can't go two different ways;

you can't believe everything you hear--

and if you always do just what you're told,

then you've got no mind of your own..."

--Grace Slick

"Let It Go"

Instead of openly bashing the article because I disagreed with most of it, I tried to be productive and post the following to my personal FB page; most of my friends seemed to like it, so I figured I would re-post it below:

About half of my lifetime ago, I found myself really struggling. No one could see it, because I was living my life for them—for everyone else.

If I could only tell that kid now that, “It’s okay; who you are is just fine.” Eh, he probably wouldn’t have believed me; he was pretty skeptical.

Sure, being selfless is virtuous; however, hating who you are because you think it’s not who everyone else wants you to be is pathologic—there’s a huge difference between the two.

Just be who you are. Be kind. Help others. Do your best.

Just don’t try for perfection; it’s an impossible goal that will inevitably lead to failure.

That is all—Happy Tuesday!

“...we’ll love you

just the way you are—

if you're perfect.”

—Alanis Morissette

“Perfect”