Being Yourself Is Difficult to Do
But it’s essential to living your best life.
All my life, I’ve been told to just be myself. But that’s easier said than done.
I grew up in a small farming town smack dab in the middle of Illinois. Coming from a small town, everybody knows everything about everybody else. Sometimes that’s a good thing, and other times, it’s not. Most of the time, it’s the latter.
Nevertheless, in small towns, everyone hangs out with their own groups. Especially in high school, there are the specific groups of people: the jocks, band geeks, art kids, nerds, burnouts, popular kids, theater kids and everything else in between. I wasn’t a part of any of these groups because I was somewhere in the middle.
Sure, I ran cross country, but that didn’t make me an athlete. I sure didn’t feel a part of their group. I played trumpet in the marching band but I was nowhere near being a band geek. During high school, I spent most of my time in a computer lab, writing for the student newspaper and yearbook, later becoming editor of each. And this is where I made my friends, but not with fellow writers.
Because I interviewed so many students about their extra curricular activities and clubs, I became friends with many of them. Mostly, one from each of the groups mentioned above. My group…
