Jody Williams, winner of the 1997 Nobel Peace prize, advises that the winner this year “Stay true to themselves”. This is advice we often hear given to kids, or in movies, but what does it really mean?
First of all, how do you discover who your true self is? It seems many people don’t know who they are. Second, most people have some qualities they wish they didn’t have, such as jealousy, envy, insecurities, or prejudices. Staying true to those things wouldn’t seem to be in our interest.
What does it mean to you to stay true to yourself? Which part of yourself do you think about?
To me “Staying true to yourself” means to stay true to what I believe in and who I am. To not become a phony to fit in. Some people will change everything about themselves to “fit in”. Most of these people are the people who so dislike themselves that they usually end up taking drugs to hide the pain they feel for living a phony life. True, there are traits we have that we wish we didn’t have, but as far as I know, no one I’ve ever met is perfect. If we were perfect, we wouldn’t be spending so much money trying to change the way we look. Though I have things about myself I dislike, so does everyone else. The things we dislike about ourselves are usually the things that make us unique. The things I dislike about myself are not things someone else would give a second thought to. One of the reasons I think I ended up on the government list, is because I’ve never been shy about expressing my ideas and not backing down when confronted about my opinions. I freely expressed them and didn’t care what someone thought.
I stay true to myself by being who I am. I don’t change my ideas on a whim, just to agree with someone else so they like me. If they like me, they like me. If they don’t like me, they don’t. There’s nothing I can do about how someone feels about me. I just have to accept the way they feel and go on with my life. No one likes being disliked, but life is life. You could be perfect in every way, and someone would find something to dislike about you. So stay true to yourself. You’ll be a happier person.