Emerson Conformity

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Originality has a different meaning to everyone, but every one of those meanings revolve around the fact of being unique in one's own personal way. In the essay “Self Reliance” by Ralph Waldo Emerson, he talks about nonconformity, being true to one’s self, trusting one’s self and not letting society take over one’s life. An abounding amount of experiences in my life prove that it is easier said than done for any of these. Many problems have come and gone throughout my seventeen years of being alive, but I’ve always struggled with who I really am and trusting myself. I have always followed the crowd because I am more of a follower than I am a leader and it shows in the way I present myself. I know that. Emerson has said throughout his …show more content…
He says “There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide..”(self - reliance, Emerson) That moment in fifth grade that I decided not to be myself and to be like others, I committed suicide. I killed off who I really was. I envied everyone that had friends, that laughed with other people. I also began to conform to society and was not my unique self. “Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist. He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore if it be goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.”(self - reliance, Emerson) Basically, he is saying that one should be a nonconformist, to love and respect your own minds honesty. Sadly, I am a conformist to society and the integrity of my own mind is not sacred to …show more content…
Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events” Throughout my middle school and part of my high school life, I have not trusted myself at all. I am always second guessing myself on everything that includes a correct answer. Most of the time between those years, I spent hours laying down on my bed, questioning my existence and hating who I became. Honestly, at that time, I could say that I despised myself because I was not who I really was. In middle school, I became a tomboy who hated pink, dresses, skirts and anything that dealt with girly things. I did things I would have never seen myself do. Quite a bit, I would say one point and then do something else. There have been so many times where I have just not trusted myself over the silliest
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