Day 2

2. The concept of "being yourself" can sometimes be confusing, but you should try to be anyway.
I am an 18 year old female. That's what the world can see at first glance. That is not my entirety as a person  nor would these observations reveal anything about my interests, goals, passions, or personality. The puzzling thing about the phrase "be yourself" is that it implies that you have an understanding of who you are as a person.  What things make up a person? Is it the organizations they belong to, or the talents that they posses? Does it depend on the day? Your current mood? Does who you think you are depend on the situation you are in or the people you surround yourself with? Because people are always changing this is a hard thing to wrap your head around. People are multidimensional and tend to break out of the boxes and molds we try to keep them in . Even though you know yourself better than anyone else, it can sometimes feel like you have no idea who you are. That is seriously okay! I mean you have the rest of your life to figure out who you are and who you want to become.
 Though you may change as a person I think that it is important to stay true to your core values. I also think that high school is a time when people tend to lose their sense on individuality in order to belong to a social group. Wanting to belong in a group is part of being social creatures. Being yourself doesn't mean that you can't belong either. It means that you try to do what you believe in and what makes you feel happy/beautiful/strong/(insert positive adjective). It means letting your own unique light shine no matter what anyone says.

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson