You Can't Always Walk Away by Courtney

You Can't Always Walk Away by Courtney - October 2013 Scholarship Essay

An interesting saying I read once perfectly summed up a valuable life lesson that I learned on my own. It goes "If somebody says something that you don't like, you can always walk away. If you say something that you don't like, you can't walk away. You have to live with yourself so you might as well be nice to yourself." That is the truth. No one can separate their mind from their body, so you need to watch what your mind says or else it can cause you a lot of heartache.

I used to have very low self-esteem, as I'm sure has happened to most other teenage females as some point in their life. I would constantly put myself down saying that I wasn't smart enough to take this math exam or that I wasn't pretty enough to go to try out to be a cheerleader. It got to the point that I was so miserable that I would barely leave my house. Eventually, there came a turning point. I managed to talk through my issues with a close friend, who helped boost my self-esteem, not lower it like some of the so-called friends that I had had in the past. I am now happy and confident, and while I do suffer from bouts of "I'm so ugly" most of the time, I don't even worry about it. I'm much more popular and out-going than I was when I had low self-esteem.

You can't walk away from yourself. You can either be your own worst enemy or your own best friend. Being your own worst enemy takes a lot of hard work and energy. Too many people in the world are already going to put me down and try to make me miserable, that job is already taken, so I would much rather be my own best friend.