Be Yourself, Yes, You

One of my favorite writing jobs was the first year I worked for Beliefnet, an inspirational, interfaith website. It’s gone through a lot of changes over the years, but the season I was there, it was a beautiful space to write freely.

This blog post, Be Yourself, included a line that people still quote back to me.

Be yourself. You’ll attract the ones who get it. Everyone else is just a spectator.

I wrote that almost eight years ago. I can say, the older I get, the less of a problem this is. Yet, still I find myself longing to sit with the cool kids and making those subtle changes that don’t highlight the best parts of me.

We all need the reminder from time to time. You, in all your oddities and weirdness, are necessary here. And the chances that you exist to help someone else feel a little less alone, well, that’s just the gravy.

~jennifer