"be yourself" is overrated

For a little context, I want to talk about individuality. Individuality is very important to me. There are many reasons for this.

1. My race has always made me a bit of an outsider. I don't quite fit in with the white kids, the black kids, the hispanic kids, the jewish kids, nobody. In my neighborhood, my ethnicity alone makes me stick out like a sore thumb. Rather than reject my background and assimilate to white midwestern culture, I embraced my uniqueness and used it to my advantage.
2. I have a fraternal twin. Since we aren't identical, we always have looked for reasons to make ourselves different from each other. We were so used to being lumped together as one person, we each pushed to become individuals.We quickly tired of questions like: "So, we know you look different, but are you basically the same person?" Answer: We aren't. We made sure of it.
3. I went to arts school for 5 years. Enough said.
4. I think it's just in my nature to be rebellious. This is something I don't have a logical explanation for. Ever since I was little, I fought against the status quo (without even realizing what that was). When every kid liked dogs, I said I liked cats. When all of the girls liked pink, I claimed my favorite color was blue.

I'll admit, the title of this post is meant as click-bait. I don't actually hate the phrase "Be Yourself". In fact, I love it. However, I think it is way overused. People tend to just throw it out when they want to sound inspirational. But what does the phrase "Be Yourself" really mean?

Let's break it down. Literally, being yourself means to just be in your body and living. As long as you are living and breathing in your own body, you are being yourself. Easy. Figuratively, it means that you aren't changing your personality to model after or copy somebody else. That you stay true to your values and personal motivations.

As someone who has been in school for the majority of my life, I can attest that schools from PreK-12 are covered in posters telling you to "Be Yourself". You can barely walk down a hallway without being confronted with the tacky patterns and neon text. But at this time in their lives, especially when in elementary school, do kids really know who they are? They know what they parents have told them, what their teacher's have taught, and maybe a couple of things they like to do. But overall, young people haven't even explored various aspects of their personality, let along had enough life experience to figure out the core of their being. Even I, a 17 year old high school student, have no clear idea what I want to do with my life or who I want to become.

Is it really helpful to order children to be themselves when they don't even know who they are yet? In order to truly inspire individuality, I think we need to change this phrase to something that is more appropriate for what it is trying to accomplish. Here are some of my ideas:

Find Yourself.

Who do you want to be?

What makes you weird is what makes you great.

Embrace individuality.

Be the person your dog thinks you are.

Do what feels right.

Don't give in.

Originality is key.

Make goals and stick to them.
Change is good.

Stand out.

Fitting in is boring.

You control your future.

"Be Yourself" is a great phrase in many situations, but I definitely think people need to think a little more about how they might be overusing it.

Thanks for reading my word vomit. Let me know if you have any comments, concerns, or suggestions in the comments or on my twitter @theonechameleon.

Camille