Rather Barefoot than bookless: Author Spotlight: Guestpost by Nathaniel Stewart

“We have to dare to be ourselves, however frightening or strange that self may prove to be.”

–May Sarton

This quote became one of my favorites after I thought about it and realized how excruciatingly true it is. For most of us, throughout our lives we were consistently told to “be ourselves.” But as we got older, most of us came to realize that “be yourself” really meant, “Be yourself as long as you aren’t too weird, too different, and you fit in to certain standards and behaviors whether social, familial, or societal.” Crazy, right?

Judgment and criticism is ever-present. It will never go away. I believe this is one of the first lessons that should be learned, especially given that judgment and criticism is often what paralyzes people from living how they want to live and doing the things that they really and truly want to do. It took me a while before I accepted the fact that it doesn’t matter who you are, where you are, what you do or what you’ve done, there is always going to be someone that has something negative to say about you and that’s fine. That’s life. Who cares if you dress weird, have an odd sense of humor, or come from an abnormal family…..if that’s who you are, then so be it. It also took me a while to learn that no one would accept me if I didn’t accept myself and then exude that self-assurance and strength as a person who knows who they are and what they are about. When you have that type of self-love and self-respect and you let that radiate, then the words and opinions of others don’t affect you and your choices. You are able to open up and almost fearlessly be who you are in everything that you do, and those are one of the types of people needed in this world.

If you are off-beat then be off-beat. If you a weird, continue to be weird. If you are strange then be strange, and remember that all the best people are.