This I Believe

Being different is a good thing. Who wants to be like everyone else, another face in the crowd? I think that if I be myself, everyone who is my real friend would like me for who I am not for who I act or live like.
Once I read a book that was about a girl who wanted to be popular. She tried so hard to fit in with the cool people that she was mean to everyone else and made herself look like a jerk to the cool people. In the end she got on everyone’s nerves and nobody liked her at all. This book helped me realize that if I try to be something I’m not, I’ll end up miserable in the end so why bother? I already know that not everyone in the world is going to like me so there is no reason to try to impress everyone. Once I finished pleasing everybody else by being who they think I should be, I wouldn’t be who I wanted myself to be anymore.

Once I heard a journalist say that he didn’t care what people thought about him as long as he delivered the truth. Once I also heard a quote from John Wooden that said, “Be more concerned with your character than with your reputation, because your character is what you really are and your reputation is merely what others think of you. When I heard both of these quotes I realized that I live like this everyday. I think that my character is what should be judg

ed because I chose it. I chose who I want to be friends with, not who others expect me to be friends with. I chose what music I want to listen to. I chose what I want to believe in and I chose to either make the right or wrong decision.

I’m the type of person that will like what I want to like even if it isn’t what’s in or if it’s not what others expect me to like. I choose the clothes I wear, not what the world thinks I should wear. I know that I should live up to my character, not up to the reputation that others gave me. I think that I should act the way I want myself to act, not the way others think or want me to act. I realized that being myself can pay off. I believe that I should be who I want to be.