<p>This is the prompt: At a recent Commencement Mass, LMU's past President, Fr. Robert Lawton, S.J. said, ''So what is the answer to this deep insecurity we all feel? The answer, I think, is to embrace the adventure of becoming deeply, and fully, ourselves. This is what God is really calling us to. It seems like the riskiest of all journeys, this journey to be oneself. But its ultimately the journey that leads us to happiness, that leads us into Gods dreams for us.''</p>
<p>QUESTION 1: Why do you think Fr. Lawton says the "journey to be oneself" seems the riskiest of all journeys? What risks lie ahead as you embark on your college career, and the "adventure" of discovering and becoming yourself?</p>
<p>I've seen a lot of people asking this question. This is a hard essay! Thank you in advance if you read it!</p>
<p>Everyone always says, Be yourself. But living in todays world, with the influence of media and the prevalence of social networks, being true to yourself becomes increasingly difficult and exceedingly undervalued. To be yourself, to really and truly be original and honest, is a demanding and risky journey, but one worth continually striving toward.
To be yourself requires hard work. It requires you to think and decide for yourself, to be open to new things but also to remember your morals, and to not be influenced by the newest fad as dictated by the media, or even participate in an activity simply because your friends are doing it or because it is considered cool. In addition, it requires you to be consistent in your words and actionsif you say one thing on a social networking site but do something completely different in real life, you are not being yourself. But perhaps why being yourself is considered risky is because it requires you to do things that may cause short-term pain or embarrassment. To be yourself is to be completely honest and open to yourself, to accept your shortcomings and failures, and to take responsibility for your actions. It is to realize your mistakes and forgive yourself. It is to let go of grudges, to deal with real emotions, and to not hide anything that you feel. To be yourself is to let go of the innate fear of being judged or not fitting in.
This is hard for many people, including me. It was so hard for me in fact, that for the first two years of high school I did not make close friends. At school it seemed like everyone liked rap music and reality television shows while I preferred folk music and science fiction. I was too afraid of not fitting in to be true to myself, and instead fell into a cycle of self-hate and insecurity, always trying to change myself into someone I wasnt.
At the start of my junior year of high school I realized something. The thing about harboring so much uncertainty about myself was that it was tiring. I constantly felt exhausted, and was almost never happy. In a somewhat delayed epiphany, I realized that being myself, doing the things that I liked and not worrying about what others thought of me, was so much easier, and much more rewarding. I dropped all pretenses, made friends easier, and became more confident in who I was.
Learning from this experience I feel ready for the risks that lie ahead in college and in life. I know that I am going to be faced with more responsibility, that my morals and values will be tried, and that I will have to deal with peer pressure. I might once again find myself in a situation where I feel like Im not fitting in or like Id have to change myself to have friends. I will probably change my opinions many times, be confused, and discover things about myself that I didnt previously know, but I dont think that I will fall into self-loathing again. Knowing that it is what God is calling me to do and that I will ultimately be happier, I believe that it will be easier for me to be truly myself.</p>