Show Your True You

I did it. I caved and bought myself a 3 month subscription to a VPN service so I can hop that dangerously wired fence called the Great Chinese Firewall.
So there goes all that time I saved not being able to watch youtube videos or check social networks. But at least it also allows me to access this blog without any problems whatsoever! So, totally worth the money!

Picture by Chiara Marra

Today I wanted to talk about something that stood out to me after I posted my last blog post, which was an episode of Triple Inspiration on Sunday. In this post I mentioned one of the books I am currently reading. It's an anthology of atheist quotes. After this post, I found that the next day, 1/3 of my RSS subscribers was gone. Don't worry, my list of loyal subscribers is short, so it wasn't a huge number, but I value all of my readers and was sad to see so many go.
I'm not sure if there was a connection, but somehow I would not be surprised. I've seen people cringe at that information before.
So I thought by myself, whether it would have been better not to say anything and just stay neutral. Just be a sort of generic person that everyone can relate to equally.
But that's not very 'me', and not really the kind of person I would want anyone else to be either. So today's post is an appeal to all of you to stay true to who you are as a person; and to let your own dreams and feelings be in charge of how you act.

There are few things more scary than showing who you truly are, and then being rejected for it. One of the appealing aspects of acting out a role is that you don't have to take any negative responses personally. They don't say anything about you as a person.

Today I want to tell you that even when you are being your true self, negative responses only say something about your relationship with the person who's responding to you. There's no knowing how people will react to you whether you're acting or not. When someone disagrees with you or thinks badly of you, it says as much about them as it does about you. One of the things I've learned in China is that my preconceived notions of politeness and good manners, and my judging of the lack thereof in my students, says much more about my culture than about theirs.

Life is too short to go around trying to be someone/something you're not. I stopped acting like I enjoyed big crowds and loud music because it made me miserable, and frankly, I haven't lost any friends over it. They may think I'm a 50 year old in 26 year old skin, but I like it that way. 

I have a lot of different kinds of friends. With some I agree on almost everything, with others on barely anything. Yet I value them for who they are, and for showing who they really are, even when they know I disagree and may think them foolish. I draw power and inspiration from these people.

What about you?