Being You

“What I am is how I came out. No one’s perfect and you just have to accept your flaws and learn to love yourself.”—Kelly Brooke (http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/love_yourself.html)

Every day, we’re bombarded by exclamations of, “Just be yourself,“ and “If you don’t love yourself, no one else will,” and blah blah. So why the flood of life-changing gurus and products that promise to transform us into the opposite of what we’ve been all along? Do we even need motivational sayings of the day if we’re supposed to be contented with how God put us on this Earth?

“I hate a movie that will end by telling you that the first thing you should do is learn to love yourself. That is so insulting and condescending, and so meaningless. My characters don't learn to love each other or themselves.”—Charlie Kaufmann
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/love_yourself.html#f3ReDjURQsECAMZc.99

Self-improvement is one thing—it makes you reach your full potential—but a complete pimp up/overhaul…how’s that going to work? We are who we are and as long as we don’t hurt anyone (delve into all of the 10 commandments and that’s all it boils down to) why can’t we just go on living life as it is?

Anjeli Xavier, the main character in The Scarlet Omen has also always felt out of place. She struggles to find herself and the reason she has been put here. Finding out what Fate has in store for her proves to be an excellent ego-booster, but self-doubt constantly plagues her every step. Doesn’t this happen to all of us?

“And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.”—Sylvia Plath
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/self-doubt.html#w6YBXmxTk4gcoCmd.99 

“Almost all the ideas we have about being a man or being a woman are so burdened with pain, anxiety, fear and self-doubt. For many of us, the confusion around this question is excruciating.”—Andrew Cohen (http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/self-doubt.html#w6YBXmxTk4gcoCmd.99)

If we really know who are, without the world constantly nagging us about who we should be, there would be no place for doubt. By being the best that we can be, we find out the good and the bad, finally able to embrace the wonderful and reign in the evil. Mentally sane and healthy people have a conscience—they just need to listen to it.

As a writer, it’s easy to get caught up in all the hype and confusion of so many different writing styles and trying not to plagiarize personality. It’s important to pick up writing tips but to stay loyal to your own style. I’ve gone soaring over a few road bumps of my own on this storytelling journey and I come out every day thinking, “Don’t lose yourself in all this crap, girl!”

“To a certain extent, your writing style-- the manner in which you express yourself -- evolves naturally over time, a combination of your personality, your reading choices, and to a certain extent, the decisions you make consciously while writing.”

(http://fictionwriting.about.com/od/crafttechnique/a/writingstyle.html)

“… I feel this invisible pull to conform, as though to be a “better writer” means to be more like the writers that we read in class.  I throw in more description, imagery and more in-depth character development into my writings.  At first, it made me feel safer, but I’ve realised that it’s just made me the same as everyone else, except not as good. So from now on, no more trying so hard to be someone else.  I’m going to try and find and employ my own style, do what makes me feel good as a writer, and write in a way that I find interesting.”—Pace J. Miller (http://pacejmiller.com/2010/04/01/finding-your-own-writing-style/)

There you have it! Stay true to yourselves! This is why living your life to the fullest is so important in teenage years as well as later on. You get to experiment as a kid, learn and grow, stumbling upon what works for you or not. If you don’t, you end up a confused adult sitting in the middle of you designer living room (which some overpriced dude with funny hair told you how to decorate) suffocated by self-help books and soggy tissues!

So just go have adventures, love yourself and party till you drop!! Just please don’t hurt yourselves and anyone else or your parents WILL come looking for me.