Self-Reliance

"What I must do, is all that concerns me, not what the people think."

I definitely believe that this quote is true for everybody, in everyday life.  Overall, it states that you should be honest with yourself and be yourself, and to not care about what other people think or say about you.  Even though this is so easily said, it is much harder to be done.  Considering the society we have today, people are constantly making standards about how people should be.  It is "not okay" for people to be fat, or to not be good at a sport, or to be different in any kind of way.  Those kinds of people are shunned from society, and are not accepted.  With this kind of "way of life" constantly being around us, how are we suppose to just be ourselves?  How can I do that if people will not accept me?

However, Ralph Emerson is correct.  It should not matter what society thinks, as long as what you think about yourself is good.  Your own thoughts are what is the most important, and you should set the standards for yourself.  If you let society be in control, then there would be no diversity, and diversity is what plays the main role in society.  I believe that without diversity, there would be no standards to be set.  What I mean by that is, lets say there were no people who were bad at baseball.  Therefore, there are no good baseball players as well, and society would just be boring.  Even though they might not let you into their own ways about life, there are still other qualities that you are good at, and you are accepted by those qualities.  Diversity is extremely necessary, and if you are too scared to show your true inner and outer self, then that's just slapping diversity in its face.

Another concept that goes along with Emerson's quote is you cannot know how great you truly are, until you show all of yourself.  If you hide something because you think society won't accept you for that quality, then society, and more importantly, you can't see how great you truly are.  And if other peopel think it's a weird quality or idea, then fine, but your own thought about it is what's most important.  There have been many incidents where someone expresses a thought they have, and get rejected for it.  Later on, however, that thought turns out to be brilliant, and he/she gets complete fame for it.

Had Emerson been too scared to share his thought, so much knowledge would have been wasted.  Due to him being himself, and saying his own thought, he has become famous.  Sure there are criticisms, however what he thought was most important, and sharing his ideals is what he wanted to do.  I believe his quote about being your true self is completely accurate, however I also think it is a lot easier said than done.