Loud and Proud

I wanted to revisit doing your own thing. It’s a way to be alive in the world. To express yourself and to be proud of who you are.

As true as the sun rises in the east each of us will be miserable if we’re a fish out of water floundering in the sand of an ill-fitting environment. We will be miserable allowing ourselves to be attacked when so-called friends or others insinuate we’re freaks because we don’t conform to what’s accepted in society.

First of all: I don’t think what’s accepted as normal in society IS normal. I don’t think the hate in the world is normal. I don’t think women bashing other women is normal. I don’t think people who stigmatize individuals diagnosed with mental illnesses are great prizes to covet winning in the friends and lovers game.

Can a person change? Yes: some people can change. A person can grow older and become more compassionate. A woman can decide she’s not going to attack her friends anymore.

And too each of us can decide that we don’t have to conform to what others tell us we should do and how they think we should act.

I hold this to be true above all else: treating yourself and others with dignity is the way to go.

Sadly, dignity is often times NOT accorded individuals living with mental illnesses.

It’s time to take back our dignity and get “loud and proud” about ourselves like Jennifer Lopez sang.

I want that no person living with a mental illness ever feels guilty and ashamed because he or she has a medical condition.

I want that no women is made to feel like a freak because she doesn’t want to be married with children.

Whatever your “thing” is. Whoever you are. However you express your personality:

It’s all good. God doesn’t make junk.