Monday, April 2, 2012

Be Like, You

Be Like, You

Like, who would even wear that?

My mom was like “you’re going.”

It was like the best moment of my life!

It looked like he was having a really bad day.

How many times a day do we saythe word like? We use it as a word to fill in space. We use it as a word to soften the blow. (“It’s almost like he was mad at us.” is a whole lot less scary sounding than “He was definitely mad at us.”) We use the word “like”, like everyday. (See what I did there? J)

But its not just the word we overuse, its also the thought. So often we think, “What does this look like? What does this sound like? What did she think I was like?” We are so concerned about what things seem like. Does this shirt make me look like I’m fat? Does being friends with him make me look like I’m a loser? Does getting a bad grade once make me look like I don’t care? Did the way I just said that make me sound like I’m stupid? You get the picture.

We are always trying to keep up appearances and impress people around us. We want them to see us at our finest. While making a good impression is important, it can also become a vicious cycle. When we start trying to be something we are not, is when the word “like” is a problem. We’ve all seen the romantic comedies where someone turns out to be different than they said they were. Their lies catch up with them, and no one seems to appreciate being lied to. Eventually we will slip up, someone will discover we are only being like something and not the real thing.

When we act like something we aren’t, like is all we will ever be. It can be like we have character, like we are putting others first, or like we know what we’re talking about. But we can never have character, put others first, or know what we are talking about if we are only acting. When we act, we are only going to be like something else, not the real thing.

We can decide to stop acting, stop caring what it looks like we are. We can be who we are, an original, not a copy of something else. When we stop worrying about what things are like, and worry about what they really are, life becomes a lot simpler. We don’t have to worry if that decision made us look dumb to other people, if we know the real reason we made the decision.

Being real takes courage. But it has a high reward. When we are real about who we are, we can be reassured everything else in our life is real too- our friends, our goals, and it will lead to real happiness.

Why be like something else when you can be the real you?