By being yourself, you put something wonderful
in the world that was not there before. -Edwin Elliot
Who am I? How can I be myself when I'm in a society that asks me to be like everyone else? When I teach, my evaluations have more to do with whether or not I'm doing the same things that all teachers are expected to do. Gone are the days of academic freedom, of following your own muse and your own instincts. Now the job is formulaic and teachers are expected to follow the formula faithfully. Other jobs are very similar. To be in certain clubs or organizations--including religions, of course--one must think and believe the same things as others. So it makes it difficult to be ourselves sometimes, difficult to follow our own paths and be true to ourselves without compromising the integrity of our selves, of who we truly are in our depths. I'm not sure that I know who I am exactly, but one thing that I'm sure of is that I'm going to do my best to put something positive and uplifting into the world that wouldn't be here if I weren't here to do my thing--not somebody else's thing, and not the thing that I'm told or expected to do.
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