Reliance of the Selfish Variety

I definitely chose the most common quote: "What i must do, is all that concerns me, not what the people think." This is a popular quote for a reason. It communicates a transcendental truth: you do what you gotta do for yourself. Its the only one that really jumped out at me in reading through the list of given quotes, probably because it is nearest to simple terms- easiest to understand. But I also feel like theres a possibility that it jumped out at me because it seems especially relevant to me right now. Up until rather recently this quote has been one of those concepts- those quote-able,noble truths that you just toss into conversation where its appropriate because it sounds good, rather than because its something you truly understand.

Now, to take this epic quote and relate it to something that seems so incredibly trivial ( I feel like a scoundrel doing this, but... I must so..) : High school. OK so yes, this is Emerson, but in order for me to understand what he says, I need to relate it to something I have experienced, High school. High school is crazy, people joke about it and capitalize off it with movies like "mean girls" etc. They say its the greatest time of your life, but there are times what it definitely does not feel that way. That quote sounds so concrete and obvious: do what you need to and if its what you truly must do, then everything will work out. (that's how i read it at least). Easier said than done, Emerson. There is a whole lot of people pleasing high-school politics that we need to take into account here, you piss off the wrong people and you are done-zo, my friend. Its like "Project Runway", "one day your in, the next day your OUT"... there's not tip-toeing around it. The fact is you can never make everyone happy: "You can make all of the people happy, some of the time, and some of the people happy all of the time, but you can never make all of the people happy all of the time" (those quote marks were pointless because theres no way thats a direct quote but... thats how I remember it) Anyway, direct or not the point is the same. Its impossible to please everyone- all you can do is live life in a way that makes you proud. If you are always doing what you must, then you have nothing to be ashamed of, and you are essentially defending yourself, by giving your enemies nothing to attack. It by no means says that you will never mess up, everyone does, but when you do, you need to face it. Take responsibility and do what you must to fix it. People will try to drag you down, but they'll have nothing on you. If nothing else, at least you can look in the mirror at the end of the day with self respect and pride in what you see. Chances are, if you can do this, others will have respect for you as well.

Its so hard not to be blinded by your few enemies, for whatever reason they tend to overshadow your numerous friends and supporters. Accepting that there will be some people who just plain don't like you for no good reason is the hardest thing to do. But it is necessary - give up on trying to please them because you are not being true to yourself, if you can keep your conscience happy, you are on the right track.