I Am Who I Am

The right to be who I am is something I feel is very important. I have spent the entirety of my relatively short life being true to myself and what I believe in at any cost. It never ceases to amaze me, how people morph themselves into people they really aren't in an effort to become viewed as more popular, interesting, or socially acceptable. I don't get it. At the end of the day, when the curtain drops, the lights go down and you move on to whatever afterlife, if any, you subscribe to, you will be remembered for what and who you are. Would you rather be remembered as someone you really weren't or would you prefer that people remember you as the person who was true to themselves. Let me expand on this a bit.

Over the course of my years on this planet, I have been seen as mute, and then as a speaking person. I have been seen as both very physically ill and vibrant. I have been seen as both a lover of women and heterosexual and a lover of men and homosexual. I have been seen as both weak and strong, smart and dumb, simple and complicated. I have been seen as many things, but which of these is me? Which of them is you? How do you decide or how do you know which is the real you? What a conflicting existence we all live in.

Through everything that has happened, I have always held on to certain core values...things that at the deepest levels of who I am, remain unchanged. If you have spent any time talking to me then you have come to know some of those things. Those of you who really know me either personally or through my cyberconnection to you, know I am honest to a fault...I call it like it is even if it might pain you to hear it. You know I have a very unusual sense of humour and that I often laugh at things that many people could not see the humour in. You would know that I am brutally open about who I am even when it means that you could pull me apart for being honest about myself. You would also know that I have a deep and unbending need to help other people and be seen as useful.

I could go on and on and you would likely learn a little more about me but the simple fact is, I do all of the above without compromise, shame or remorse. There are many things I will never understand in life, many mysteries in the world I will never ever understand or comprehend, but who I am is not one of them. People sometimes ask me how I can be so open with perfect strangers and the truth is, I don't have the answer. I only know how to be who I am. I don't have to think about it, I just do it. Some people ask me how I can open myself up to criticism with the sometimes ridiculous things that come out of my mouth or get typed by these fingers, and again, I simply don't know because its all I know.

If you have been following this blog then you know already that I am a pretty open person and I don't make any excuses about that. Now, the question I ask you is, are YOU true to YOURSELF? do you know who and what you are at the most basic level? do you be yourself with other people or do you work on being someone else?

Take it from me people, this life can be short, and the unexpected lurks around every corner. Do you want to waste all your time and energy working on being someone else? Or would you rather spend that same time and energy being who you are with all the energy and zest you can muster?

Actors get paid big money to be someone they are not...so if your not being paid to be someone else, why not just be yourself!

On that note I will leave you to it...go out and be you...whatever that YOU is!

LiveSTRONG!