Image Insights: Showoff

Feb 17, 2020

 
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment”.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
 
I have always been somewhat socially awkward. I have a gentle nature and I'm friendly and pretty darn clever, but I often feel a beat behind in conversations. It used to give me great anxiety, especially when I was much younger. I'd worry about if what I had said—or not said—had impacted others' perceptions of me negatively.

Getting older has a lovely way of making all that matter less. Now, I know I'm just a little quirky. And everyone else I know is quirky too. Some people are really very good at interacting with others, and some people are just terrible at it. The vast majority of us fall somewhere in between. The fact is we're all a bunch of well-intentioned weirdos just trying to do our best in any given situation.

A while back I decided to embrace my quirks, and what happened was now I recognize and appreciate quirks in others too. People are endlessly fascinating, usually endearing, and always at their best when their guard is down and they're just being themselves.
 
That's what Showoff is about. There are times in each of our lives where being ourselves, speaking our minds, and doing our own thing is probably going to raise some eyebrows. Do it anyway. As long as your self expression doesn't get in the way of others leading their lives as they see fit, do your thing and smile while you do it.

As someone once said, always be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.