“Being yourself in a world that is constantly trying to turn you into something else is a success itself.”
Quotes like these are held in high standards often times. Some say it is great to be yourself, to do what you know you are supposed to do, what you feel like doing and saying. But who is the self? What defines your ‘self’? Your history, your taste, knowledge or is it the surroundings? Thoughts can change; same goes for knowledge. Taste is a result of practice. History is out of one’s control. So why should these things, fickle or out of control, be deciding my actions or roles? Whatever these say about a person may be true, but this should not limit one’s ability to choose a different path out of curiosity, free will or ambition.
What if I am afraid, but decide to be brave?
What if I am shy, but decide to be outgoing?
I would like to define ‘self’ in a forward looking way. My decisions, my actions, my path—these constantly keep redefining my ‘self’. Each of my actions adds a new piece to the puzzle of my personality. Till death, the picture keeps getting clearer, keeps adding new colors, and after all the twist and turns of the brush, it tells a story, a story about me.
To call the first few strokes ‘self’ and let it control all the other strokes will not do justice to the whole painting that is supposed to tell the world my story. I can stay going in the same style if I feel like, but that is not any better than the one who decided to take on a different medium altogether. One can go totally crazy one day with all the colors from the world and start painting a new story about his life, and that should be fun.
Quotes like these are held in high standards often times. Some say it is great to be yourself, to do what you know you are supposed to do, what you feel like doing and saying. But who is the self? What defines your ‘self’? Your history, your taste, knowledge or is it the surroundings? Thoughts can change; same goes for knowledge. Taste is a result of practice. History is out of one’s control. So why should these things, fickle or out of control, be deciding my actions or roles? Whatever these say about a person may be true, but this should not limit one’s ability to choose a different path out of curiosity, free will or ambition.
What if I am afraid, but decide to be brave?
What if I am shy, but decide to be outgoing?
I would like to define ‘self’ in a forward looking way. My decisions, my actions, my path—these constantly keep redefining my ‘self’. Each of my actions adds a new piece to the puzzle of my personality. Till death, the picture keeps getting clearer, keeps adding new colors, and after all the twist and turns of the brush, it tells a story, a story about me.
To call the first few strokes ‘self’ and let it control all the other strokes will not do justice to the whole painting that is supposed to tell the world my story. I can stay going in the same style if I feel like, but that is not any better than the one who decided to take on a different medium altogether. One can go totally crazy one day with all the colors from the world and start painting a new story about his life, and that should be fun.