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Quote by: Rive  CofeeSaint - It is you that have come the closest to how I feel about this. There are two sides to us all. The one we show to the world, and the one we keep inside ourselves. If we get lost in our "mask" it will overcome our own true "self". We lose ourselves in life, and change. We are who we are, but then again, we are trying to be what everyone else thinks we should be. |
I would put it the other way around: the longer we wear a mask, the greater the chance that the mask will be lost in our "true" self. The self is too strong to be covered by a facade for long; people just don't lie that well. I think that what bothers people who begin to question if their public persona has taken over their true self is the simple fact that their public persona may be who they really are, and they don't like it.
I've been a teacher for seven years now, and every year I get a little bit more bitter and cynical, and a little more short-tempered. I've bemoaned the loss of my patience, and the joy I used to feel when teaching -- until I realized that those feelings were the false ones. I really am cynical and bitter, and the reason I had so much trouble dealing with the stress of teaching for the last seven years is because I didn't want to be bitter and cynical, so I lied to myself and told myself that I was patient and enjoyed helping to mold young minds. While I am patient, and I do enjoy helping to mold young minds, those are not my defining characteristics: having accepted this -- just in the last few months, really -- my stress is slowly melting away. I'm still struggling with it for the reason I said above: part of me feels guilty for my true self's feelings. In some way -- mostly because of societal expectations -- I think the mask is a better person. But the bitter one is me, and accepting that means I don't have to fight myself any more -- and that does make me happier.
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Quote by: Rive My opinion
We are both products and raw materials. We have our own thoughts and opinions, but others (society) molds us into the forms that we become. Without the world around us we are merely animals, but we shouldn't follow others blindly. Too often we get caught up in our own lives, that we do not have time to give everything the thought and consideration it should be given. We just follow, and lose ourselves.
I think to a certain extent we choose our own path, but that path is mostly in the footsteps of those before us. We don't actively follow someone else's path, but still, mostly we don't make our own. We may do things differently, but ultimately this path is the same. Much of the road has already been paved, its hard to make our own way on it.
There is more I could say, but I'm not the best with words. I look forword to further responses. You've all given much for me to consider |
I don't believe that society molds us against our will, or away from our true path/ true calling. If one is confused about who the true self is, or what one's proper path/calling in life is, it is because there is more than one possibility for a dominant personality, more than one life path that one could follow. I don't believe it is because society and outside influences have seduced us away from ourselves. So I disagree: I think we do form our own paths when it comes to the large and important choices in life, and can't do anything but. That's why, I believe, we try to follow others in small, superficial ways, such as pop culture and fashion, because then we can gain comfort from the relief of not having to think too much about what's right or good. But in terms of our own morality and intelligences and beliefs, our own vocations and place in life, all of that comes from within: you always make your own bed. If society puts you in a place you don't like, you work your way out of it; if you can't work your way out of it, it means you don't completely dislike it. Or simply that you haven't worked your way out of it yet, but you will in the future.
Again, using myself as an example: teaching isn't what I really want to do with my life; I want to write. It's taken me six years to write the novel I want to try to sell, and now it will take me more years to sell it and write another novel or two or three so that I can quit teaching and be a writer. But I would rather have been a teacher for those seven-plus years than work in an office. So while my path hasn't been the right one, as in the one I want to walk until the end, it has been a path that will lead to the right one -- and it's been the right side path for me to be on. It has to be, because I chose it.