In my experience, nevermind masking. “Just be yourself,” is just a straight up feel good white lie that society likes to espouse. Society and groups tend to value comformity. It’s right up there with like, The Power of Friendship! When the reality is a lot of friendships don’t survive leaving the school or workspace where they started, or if someone starts a family. It can sometimes take a very serious and concerted effort to try and maintain a friendship.
I did find myself over a very long time and it turns out “myself” oscillates between several different points uncontrollably and I somehow think that’s not gonna be considered an acceptable answer.
And yet it’s a lot more sensible than trying to reduce a person to a watered downed, cliche sentence. Your statement reminds me of a recent “meme” that got kicked around, which called out the idea of someone going off while angry as “showing their true colors,” and taking issue with how such a statement completely negates all the times a person was good or nice as if it were fake, but that this nasty side in the heat of the moment must really be this person’s one true self. And the meme is right, the concept is bogus. But people love watered down, cliche sentences because they are easy and simple.
The people who say it are people who have never had to really think much about who they are. Or deal with the consequences of being born in a world that is determined to let certain people die.
In my experience, nevermind masking. “Just be yourself,” is just a straight up feel good white lie that society likes to espouse. Society and groups tend to value comformity. It’s right up there with like, The Power of Friendship! When the reality is a lot of friendships don’t survive leaving the school or workspace where they started, or if someone starts a family. It can sometimes take a very serious and concerted effort to try and maintain a friendship.
I did find myself over a very long time and it turns out “myself” oscillates between several different points uncontrollably and I somehow think that’s not gonna be considered an acceptable answer.
And yet it’s a lot more sensible than trying to reduce a person to a watered downed, cliche sentence. Your statement reminds me of a recent “meme” that got kicked around, which called out the idea of someone going off while angry as “showing their true colors,” and taking issue with how such a statement completely negates all the times a person was good or nice as if it were fake, but that this nasty side in the heat of the moment must really be this person’s one true self. And the meme is right, the concept is bogus. But people love watered down, cliche sentences because they are easy and simple.
The people who say it are people who have never had to really think much about who they are. Or deal with the consequences of being born in a world that is determined to let certain people die.