I’ve finally stopped running away from myself. Who else is there better to be? – Goldie Hawn

Just be you. It’s something I say to my students a lot to get them to stop worrying about everybody else.  They are pros at that.  They worry about what everybody else is saying, doing, and of course posting on social media.  If one person says red is the best color ever the next day, two thirds of them are wearing red. They watch the same shows, wear the same clothes, have to own the same phones. As an adult watching their world, it’s exhausting. I can’t imagine living it.

Don’t get me wrong, I can remember being sort of like that in high school.  We had to have Izod shirts and Top Siders, and jeans that had a designer name stitched on the back pocket.  And when my mom was a teen they set their hair with pin curls, pegged their pants and teased their hair.  Trying to be like everybody else isn’t anything new, but oh how I wish, back when I was a teen, there was somebody to say just be you.

I’m starting to just be me, and I kind of like it.  I’m unique, in fact, I’m the only me there is, and there is nobody more qualified to be me, than me.  In this world where we are constantly being pressured to be like everybody else, I can say with 100% certainty that you should just be you, because you are amazing.