Confidence...To be continued

Okay guys, this is somewhat of a persuasive essay i did for the paper a year or so ago. Im sure most of you didn't catch it in print, but I think it's a positive enough message that EVERYONE should read it. I plan on eventually exploding this idea into a well thought out campaign that I'll take everywhere with me and try to change someones life with. I hope at least one of you gets something from this, although it is kind of primitive and under developed due to my spacial constraints for it to be printed.

Thanks and email me your replies.

- AMAP (That's Mat Threet)

Confidence is an idea that is taught at a very early age and is reinforced throughout our whole lives. Whether it be the heroin of our favorite Disney movie as children, or our favorite pop singer, the media bombards us with the notion that it is cool to feel good about ourselves. This endorsement of self confidence is undoubtedly linked to the motivation that it brings, and, with motivation comes a more productive society. But the reasons behind it are an entirely separate issue.

The point is, it’s there. American pop-culture is over-flowing with self confidence, at least those who represent it. But where has the general public’s confidence gone? Now, of course not everyone has self-esteem problems, however, in my opinion, far too many people do, and it has even come to the point that those who have manifested their potential confidence are labeled with words and phrases of a more negative connotation such as “cocky” or “egotistical”. However, I doubt it could be debated that those people bring more positive energy than negative to the room. And yes, some of these people have a surplus of confidence but is it not better to have too much then not enough?

A lot of people scrutinize themselves far too much for one day before they even step foot out of their front door to join the rest of the overly judgmental. Obviously, everyone is self-critical to a certain extent, and this is a good way to keep ourselves walking the line, however, many take it too far. Must we be so hard on ourselves?

I walk through campus and see a wide variety of people. I see different groups of friends sitting in wait for their next class to begin, and I see some sitting alone studying hard for an upcoming exam (God help them), among many other different situations. However, with so many different situations, I see people take the back seat in conversations because they obviously are afraid to voice their opinion due to their lack of confidence. I see the men and women on campus sit in admiration of a class mate all semester long but never say a word to them. I see people in class who have great vantage points yet to be explored in certain subjects in class that never raise their hand because they are afraid of what their classmates may think. I see a general lack of confidence that is both heart-breaking and uncalled for.

Truth be told, we all have good and bad points of our character. We all struggle with the same types of problems from day to day. We all do well with some things that not everyone else does. This is my point: we all have something to be confident about. I charge you to realize that you are great, as are the men and women that stand next to you. Although we all have different reasons to feel great, not one person has no any reason to feel great.