If You Wanna Be Somebody Else, Change Your Mind

No, thanks. I'm okay being me. You know, I've got some good stuff going for me.

As far as I see it, I'm pretty smart, have a good sense of humor as well as diverse and multifaceted interests, and genuinely try to be friendly to everyone I know. I'm patient and understanding, pretty easily willing to forgive and let things slide, and I'll bend over backwards to help out the people I care about. I try to think ahead, sometimes a little too much, and want to fit into the world, as opposed to trying to wrap the world around me.

I'm in decent cardiovascular health, though couldn't it always be better? I can do some cool things a lot of people can't, like break bricks and play the drums. There's a lot of stuff I can't do yet but I'm trying to learn, too.

I'm pretty self-motivated, don't like sitting on my hands when I could be pursuing something I believe to be important, and don't intend on letting somebody else decide who I'm going to be or what I'm going to do. At the same time, I love getting input and advice from others. It used to be hard for me to take criticism, but I've gotten a lot better at it.

And, to top it all off, I think I'm pretty good-looking. Perhaps not gorgeous or studly, because I just don't have any of the right features for that, but among all the gawky, scrawny, misproportioned white dudes I know, I think I pull it off better than most.

I think I've got a lot going for me. If the rest of the world either doesn't agree or decides to just ignore me and walk on by, I'm sad, but ultimately I hope it's more of a loss to the world.

The adage about nice guys finishing last may apply here. It may not. Suffice it to say that, even though sometimes I think I'm alone in doing so, I think I'm a pretty alright dude.

Though, to be forthcoming, it can get hard. Some days I'd really like an external source of acknowledgment and validation, too. You can't get by purelyon inner confidence 100% of the time. Maybe you can, but it kind of sucks. But, even in these dark times, I suppose it's important to buck up and keep that one last bastion of confidence intact, probably moreso during doubting times than any time else.