"Being yourself" seems to be such an overrated concept, for each of us have so many selves, of diverse mentalities. If you behave differently around different people, does it mean that you are putting on some kind of façade? No, of course not. It means that different people nourish different parts of you.
I find it difficult to believe that there is ever a moment when any of us are not being ourselves; even the shy or the bitter parts are us. Even those of us who pretend to like things they don’t, or feel things that they don’t - well maybe the yearning to fit in is just a part of you as well.
I think it is sort of beautiful that we each have endless possibilities of who we could be inside of us. I think it’s beautiful that we may not have found many of them, and that each day of our lives, we all have the potential to find an exquisite new part of ourselves. I think that that is a wonderfully valid reason to be alive; to give ourselves the chance to “be ourselves," to find parts of ourselves that we like even if there are always going to be parts that we don’t.
Always be yourself, but be whoever that is to you, not who you are thought to be or expected to be. You can redesign yourself whenever you choose to do so, and it is your right as a human to live as you see fit. Live as someone that will make you proud, and always be willing to find new parts of yourself.
-Perception
