What Do You Remember?
I have a sign hanging in my office.
I’ve had it for a really long time.
I remember I bought it as a reminder–but I couldn’t tell you the last time I read it all the way through.
Well, before today that is.
- Be You.
- A Genuine Original.
- Find your voice.
- Make a difference.
- Don’t forget where you came from, but never lose sight of where you are going.
- Believe in your gifts–Cherish them and explore their possibilities.
- Be brave and wild at heart.
- Make mistakes and don’t be afraid to ask questions.
- Embrace all the things that make you unique.
- Practice kindess and compassion.
- Be passionate about the things that matter to you.
- Be a hero to someone.
- Become someone you will be proud of when you look back on your life.
- Be a good friend.
- Live your life with no regrets.
- And remember that all the things about yourself that you sometimes wish were different are really the most special. Because you are the real thing.
That’s some pretty powerful stuff. Pretty straight forward, too. And it all seems easy enough. You know–to be a good person and focus on your strengths. But it’s not–am I right? It’s so much easier, it seems, to focus on all the ugly things about ourselves.
I was the girl in high school who only heard the nasty things people said about me. It didn’t matter that I had friends who were telling me quite the opposite–I only heard the nastiness. I focused on it. I let it stew for weeks and months and years. And now it’s all I remember.
And then a few weeks ago–I was catching up with a friend from HS. Their perspective of how my life was like in HS was so completely and utterly different than how I felt then or how I remember it now. She said “I was jealous of you, because your life/friends/relationships seemed so much more interesting than mine!”
I had no idea.
And when I think back on my HS years, I definitely don’t see anything that was worth jealousy.
I was tortured.
But I tried to be a good person.
I tried to be a good friend.
Despite all the things people said and did to me.
The point is. I bought that sign to remind myself to basically believe in myself. To know that I’m a good person. To be the kind of friend I know how to be. And to see the good. And to remember the good. I don’t want to remember pettiness and heartache and fear when I look back on this time in my life. I want to remember that I was exactly who I was supposed to be.
Become someone you will be proud of when you look back on your life.
Be yourself
& see the good.
