Be Yourself

mohamed nohassi

If you're always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be.” –
Maya Angelou

Be Amazing

I spent most of my youth trying to be someone else. After all, I thought, there had to be something better than this. In reality, I was holding myself back. It came down to self-worth (self-esteem). Once I valued who I am, I became more aware of those around me. I was no longer focused on myself. According to Mentalhelp.net, Self-esteem refers to a person's beliefs about their own worth and value. It also has to do with the feelings people experience that follow from their sense of worthiness or unworthiness. Self-esteem is important because it heavily influences people's choices and decisions.

I have to come to believe in something greater than myself. 

A person with a high sense of self-worth is neither full of themselves, nor thinks that the world revolves around them. Instead, this person remembers and is humbled by their small but important role in the grand scheme of things. Like a singular wave in a great big ocean, they know they are part of something greater, and as such are never truly “alone.” -By Michael Stanwyck , The Ten Thought Habits of People with High Self-Worth.

Rise up. Make your voice be heard.

And Still I Rise

Protests are not to be confused with riots. Protests have the power to create change. In my lifetime, protests helped make changes in civil rights, voting rights,  and topple the Berlin Wall. Obviously, it is not just protest that generates change, but the increased awareness motivates action.

 "Power concedes nothing without a demand."  -Frederick Douglass 

Without protest, the voices of the oppressed go unheard. The demand for change must be loud and clear.

Did you want to see me broken?

Bowed head and lowered eyes?

Shoulders falling down like teardrops,

Weakened by my soulful cries?

Does my haughtiness offend you?

Don't you take it awful hard

’Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines

Diggin’ in my own backyard.

You may shoot me with your words,

You may cut me with your eyes,

You may kill me with your hatefulness,

But still, like air, I’ll rise. -Maya Angelou