This is me---simple and complete.

    There comes a time in our lives where we suddenly discover ourselves.  It's funny because we spend our entire lives trying to create this persona and we try so hard to convince the world that we know who we are.  I'm finding that as hard as I try to create myself and to be somebody I'm not, it's not something I can control.  There comes a day in all of our tiny little worlds when it just clicks and we realize who we are.  Some of us do not handle it well and we melt down, realizing that all our work to be somebody was in vain.  Others are able to just sit back and accept their new found being.  I think that I am one of those.

    Let's be honest, high school is not as fun as we all think it is or was.  High school days were not your glory days and as much as you may think that you owned the halls or the football field, all that you have to show now is a face in a book full of other faces and a number on a faded jersey in the back of your closet.  You didn't find yourself in high school.  You probably didn't find yourself in college either.  Some of you will never find yourself because you're too busy creating someone that people like.  You're busy looking in someone else's mirror.  The image you see reflected back will never be the real you; only a mimic or a copy of someone else.  I once heard an old Hebrew saying that read "We are all born originals and die a copy".  As depressing as it is to think about this, isn't it true?  How many of us can honestly say that we created our look or developed our personality or sense of humor solely?  I know that I can't.  We are so strongly influenced by the magazines we read, the commercials we see and the people that convince us that we cannot be happy if we're not the best version of ourselves.  Who are you to tell me how to live?  When did my life become something that could be voted on?  I never sent out a ballot, I never took suggestions in a suggestion box and I never gave you a survey to fill out.

     I am me, simple and complete.  I'm nutty and disorganized and sometimes I cry for no reason, but somehow I am okay with that.  Somehow, I can wake up every day and confidently say that I am exactly who I need to be.  Somewhere along the way I let somebody tell me that I wasn't good enough.  I let people make decisions for me.  I tied on the strings myself and handed them the sticks to work me as their own personal marionette.   I provided them the pens to write my story for me, took the script and personally sat them in the director's chair to tell me how to live.  It comes down to this: I was too scared to live my own life. But no more.  I've cut the strings, burned the script and smashed that megaphone to pieces.  I'm living life my way.

 "Independence is my happiness, and I view things as they are, without regard to place or person; my country is the world, and my religion is to do good."

 -Thomas Paine