There’s a quote by Carl Jung that states “The world will ask you who you are, and if you do not know, the world will tell you.” I would love for you to read that quote again, and then once more for good measure. Did the weight of those words hit you like a ton of bricks? Because quite frankly, it left me pondering for days.
I think perhaps we don’t take enough time to discover ourselves, to really get to know the intricate details that make up who we are. In part, because life can get so busy it’s rare to have a quiet moment of reflection, but truthfully, I think part of it is because it can be scary to reflect inwardly so deeply. Once you have a moment of realization that you’ve spent twenty-something years of your life not living truthfully to yourself, you can’t help but feel a little bit lost.
Whether we realize it or not we absorb the opinions of others, and their perceptions of us. Worse, we accept them to be true because we don’t know any better. Sometimes those opinions make us doubt our worth, or cause us to dim our light until next thing we know, we’re a fraction of ourselves.
After a conversation with a friend, I too was left to wonder who exactly am I? I remember being a loud, crazy, fully unashamed and full of personality little girl. The kind of little girl that always had a witty comeback and never took no for an answer. But as the years ticked by, I became shy, closed off, so easily embarrassed, and horribly anxious. Truth be told, as I entered my awkward pre-teen and teenage years, I became hyper aware of my appearance, and self-conscious at every comment ever pointed my way. I started to just accept the labels being stuck to me without question, promising myself I’d shed them one day when I was all grown up and knew who I was.
Well, I’m all grown up now (kind of), and I still sometimes let those labels define me in ways I wish I wouldn’t. But I’m a work in progress! Everyday I’m re-learning details about myself, and reconnecting with the things I loved as a kid. I’m trying new hobbies, cutting my hair, and most of all I’m refusing to be embarrassed!!!! I’m freeing myself of the judgment and expectations of others because I’ve got nothing to prove, and neither do you. I want to look back on my life one day and feel genuinely happy with the way things played out because I did it all with no regrets. So if you think maybe one day you’ll look back and regret trying to fit into the boxes someone has placed you in because you never truly discovered yourself, well, you should start today.
I don’t know about you, but I want to know and love the authentic versions of the people around me, not the versions of them they feel they have to be based on arbitrary labels they’ve collected over the years. How beautiful would it be to look at the people you love and know you’re seeing them for exactly who they are.
All this is to say, I hope you get to know yourself, your real self. The you that you were completely unashamed to be as a child. Know yourself so well that people never get the chance to tell you who you are. Be so you that you inspire everyone around you to discover themselves a little more too. So, when the world asks you who you are, tell them with confidence.
