Be Who You Are

In Emerson’s famous essay, Self-Reliance, Emerson talks a lot about the importance of self worth, and the importance of being comfortable in your own skin. In his essay, Emerson says “That imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till.” This is saying that you need to be comfortable being who you are, because it’s the hand that you were dealt, and it does not get any better than what you have. I also think that Emerson is saying that without hard work you are not going to go very far in life. To me this means that no matter where you are in life there is always room for improvement, but the only way you can improve is by hard work.