This lesson for many sometimes takes a little time to learn but the sooner it is learned the better off one will be. This lesson is a lesson of not just identity but finding comfort in that identity. You see no one in this world is just alike. I don’t care how much people say you look just like your mom or act just like your dad you are still different from them. This is where personality, experiences, education and relationships come into play. You see I come from a family that has three sets of twins in it and it would have been four had the last set not died but in my experience with these twins some of them look just alike and others don’t. But regardless to any of their outward appearances or expressions they are all different and the older they become the more different they will become. Will they still share some of the same qualities? Absolutely! Will they still have similar features or mannerisms? You bet. But in their true essence they will be different. If I can get you to think a minute back on your life up to this point and ponder on the experiences that you have had in life you will see how those experiences shaped who you are today. Your experience with people your experience with education your experience with yourself your experience with challenges and disappointments your experience with God every experience you have had whether good or bad has made you who you are right now. And your future experiences will continue to shape who you will become.

However sometimes we are fearful or ashamed to let that individual really shine in the world. This comes because we are shaped as a society to always compare ourselves to the next person. This is one reason why celebrities are worshiped so, within our culture, because the mainstream media has made us to believe that we are to strive to be like them in some way or another. Now I am not saying that you shouldn’t have role models but what I am saying is that in your having role models have a since of yourself. Don’t lose the true nature of who you are trying to become someone else because no one likes a counterfeit. I believe we have failed in this area because we don’t realize that our experiences are our experiences and they are here to make us who we are and that we may use them to advance someone else’s life but it is our decisions in the face of those experiences that really matter the most. Let me explain. The fact that I am a young man who is joyful, excited about life and ambitious in my approach to life is great and that is what shines through and because of that people often wonder why I am so happy or what makes me so ambitious about life. Then I am afforded the opportunity to share who I am and what I have experienced in order to encourage, help or guide someone else along their journey. But in a simpler format being myself goes beyond just the smile on my face or the friendly personality I may have. It is dressing how I feel led to dress. Wearing my hair the way I like to wear it.

Express your fashion since on your own terms and be confident in that, don’t aim to be like the Jones’s because nine times out ten the Jones’s are trying to be like the Smith’s and what you have there is a bunch of copycats who really don’t know who they are. Find yourself, realize what makes you happy and do just that and that comes with personal time alone. Don’t be afraid to be by yourself, don’t be ashamed or afraid to have an opinion don’t be intimidated by individuals or groups of people that probably don’t even know who they are anyway. Stop letting them dictate to you who you should be. Be yourself. Your experiences matter, your opinion matters, your life matters and the only way to let these things come forth is to embrace your experiences in life in a positive manner and what you take away as a result will help shape who you will become. And once you become, just be, don’t make excuses or try to make others comfortable with that, just be you; because you are valuable.