Be Nothing But Yourself

Well after a very intense debate over Facebook this blog was a no brainer for me. I can’t stand people who change their personality or their views based on who they’re around. I call them doppelgangers. Now if you’re unfamiliar with the word here’s a quick lesson from Uncle J, Doppelganger (n) 1) a ghostly counterpart of a living person. Let’s forget about the ghost part and just run with the counterpart…. uhhhh part.

One of the reasons I hate this is because some of the worst years of my life were when I was trying to be someone I’m not. At one time I was one of the most picked on kids at school. It didn’t get too bad until my freshman year and it carried on all the way through my sophomore year. Shocking yes I know but if you seen pictures you would understand why.

Basically my attitude changed the day that my sophomore year ended. I decided that I was done trying to act like someone that I wasn’t. I was through getting picked on, and through holding back the real me to try and blend in with the crowd. My junior year was a lot better, the first guy that tried to bully me I punched in the nose so the bullying stopped. My senior year was when I finally let loose and the real me was revealed to the world and I had a blast being ME. I didn’t care what others thought about me and had fun and people hung out with me without any doubt that they were going to have a good time.

My views on everything changed with my coming out of my shell. I refused to date, because the only reason I had dated before was kind of a social status thing. I did it so I wasn’t the geeky single guy that nobody wanted. I hung out with tons of girls and went on dates but they knew there was nothing going to come out of it, not even sex. Because of this some people thought I was gay and I didn’t care because I wasn’t and I knowing that was all that mattered. I was having fun without the pressures of trying to fit and could care less what people thought. I didn’t fit in with any crowd, I fit in with all of them and had more friends then ever.

I’ve always thought that friendships being broken between people because they didn’t fit the same stereotype are terrible. I really think this is where my hate for doppelgangers harbors from. I had a friend since elementary school that had been my best friend all the way up to my senior year. While I was having fun being myself, my friend became part of the crowd that thought it was funny to make fun of people’s misfortunes. To me that wasn’t cool, even though I said funny things and picked on people it was about things that even the person couldn’t help but make fun of themselves over. I never hurt anyone’s feelings and even to this day I feel that I haven’t hurt anyone’s feelings. It was unfortunate that he had to change who he was to blend in. He broke a friendship that was a very long and good one just so he we would fit in somewhere.

It gets on my nerves when someone acts one way when they are around some people but then when around a different group they act like that group. One thing with me is you’re going to get the same me no matter who you are or what kind of person you are. I look at as having more respect for myself, keyword myself. If you have to change who you are that’s basically saying you’re ashamed of who you are as a person.

Now underneath this blog is a lesson to be learned, possibly on the level of “Aesop’s Fables”. Never be anything other than yourself, always stand up for the things you believe in because at the end of the day when you go home and you’re by yourself, all you have is the real you. Don’t change to become something you’re not to make a new friend because that is a friendship built on lies. May the force be with you on this fine day.