The Best of Me

Each and every person is individual and unique, having their own personalities, hopes, dreams and a heart like no other. Everyone desires to be their best selves and seeks out the things in life that help nurture that. The best me is a woman who does not compromise her values, stands up for her family, always believes in herself, chases her dreams enthusiastic. She is a woman who is always smiling, encouraging to others, is strong, resilient and always perseveres.  She is a woman who sees the beauty in everything around her.  She is a shining star.

Inspiring to always be my best self I must not let the opinions of others sway me from what is true in my heart. If I have certain convictions, I should not compromise them just to make others happy.  I should stand by my thoughts and beliefs and expect those that love me to honor them. Mutually, I will respect others and compromise whenever possible. To be my best self, I must respect and be confident in whom I am now, forgive myself for any past mistakes, and not let others hold them against me. In Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay "Self-Reliance", he expresses this ever so eloquently when he wrote “the other terror that scares us from self-trust is our consistency; a reverence for our past act or word, because the eyes of others have no other data for computing our orbit than our past acts, and we are loath to disappoint them.” The past is not something to be forgotten but something to be learned from. Who I was yesterday, may not necessarily be who I am tomorrow. For, it is only I that will be left alone in the wake of disappointment, after the consuming storm of trying to please all others.

Additionally, in staying true to myself, I must not conform to the opinions of others, for their own happiness and satisfaction. For example, my pursuits in building bridges between the United States and Middle Eastern and North African countries.  I love learning the Arabic language, I love building relationships with people from other cultures, because I believe together we can do great things in this world. Unfortunately, this dream is something that I get a lot of disrespect, judgment and discouragement. But this is my dream, and I will follow it.  Like Emerson said, “What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. This rule, equally in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness. It is the harder, because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it. It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.” These are my dreams and only I can realize them. Whatever God has put on my heart, he has put there for me only, no one can do whatever it is I am called to do, even if I am to make the difference in just one life, it was my job alone. I do however care only enough about what others think, because I want to leave them with an imprint of love.

Furthermore, I must respect the desires of my heart, and only I can understand them fully. When it comes to matters of the heart, I will allow myself to love fully and unconditionally, disregarding the opinions of those who chose to not understand, who takes things that are evil, like racism, and religious differences, and try to use such things as leverage to disconnect me from the people that I love, especially the family I have married into. I will stand up for them because they deserve to be honored just as much as the family I was born into.  Love is not a coincidence, and I will stand up for this love, forever. My best self will go to the grave defending true love.  No one does anything great without breaking the standard.

Lastly, in all of these characteristics of my best self it is clear to me, that it is my duty to be a leader. Someone who shows the world that we are to put aside the differences of religion and culture and  find common ground, so that we can do what we should be doing, helping each other. Arguing over who is right and who is wrong, makes no difference while people around us are crying out for help. Someone who loves people unconditionally, and gives of herself altruistically, that is my best self, leading by example, shining like a star in the dark of night.