Week 9 Blog: Self-Reliance and Emerson

Emerson ends his chapter on self-reliance by stating, “Nothing can bring you peace but yourself” (pg. 226). This week’s discussion of self-discovery is very thought-provoking and has me thinking about who I am as a person and what I want to become in the future. Frequently, especially as a college student, I find myself hoping that the work I am doing will pay off and that I have a successful future. However, the more I think about it, the more I realize that even after college, I will still worry about the even further future. There will always be something else down the road that will seem like an insurmountable task.

In his text, Emerson praises the person who is self-reliant and who has rejected the common influence of society because they do not depend on anyone or anything else to tell them how to live, and that they have a strong sense of who they are and what their purpose is. As much as I would love to be this type of person, who is sure of themselves and can live without the worry of how they present themselves, I’m not sure that I will be able to achieve this due to the pressure of the economy in modern times.