Be Yourself - by Monica

“You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.” –Winston Churchill

This week was definitely no walk in the park, but it also taught me an important lesson.

People will talk bad about you. You will have people walk out of your life when you did nothing wrong. You will help people who, in your deepest time of need, won’t be there for you in return.

That happened to me this week. And it was tempting to change who I was. It was tempting to harden my heart and stop being so open to people so I wouldn’t be hurt like that again.

But, this week alone, I saw five of my true friends. Every single one of them was there for me. Every single one of them was worried about me. They all loved me for who I was.

Don’t help others in hopes of a reward. Because a reward is not guaranteed. Help people because you want to help them be happy, if only for a moment. Some people are selfish and won’t repay you, but that’s not why you should do it. You’re bound to be disappointed if you do it for that reason. I regret to say, with one person who took me for granted, I was tempted to stop helping others. But, if everyone who was disappointed stopped helping altogether, no one would help at all anymore.

I realized that, for that one person who took me for granted, there were so many other people who did appreciate it.

If you try to help hundreds of people and only help one, then it was worth it.

And never ever change who you are for anyone. Because if you do, you won’t be happy with yourself. And if you do, you will never know who your true friends are.

If you lose friends because of who you are…well, that’s their loss.

You are the one person in your life who you know will never leave you. So be the kind of person you can be proud of and stop worrying what other people think of that person.

I learned that the world is always trying to knock the good out of people. And I know that I for one won’t let it knock the goodness out of me.

The Hindu Bhagavad Gita said that we have a duty to realize our full potential in the world and to construct or discover a unique individuality. Don’t settle or change your individuality for others.