Just Be "You"?

It's always someone telling us to "just be yourself". Just be "you". However, who is "you"? We're all products of other forces so "you" is no different than the melting pot of the United State of America.

Physically and mentally, we inherit characteristics from our parents and their parents and the rest of the stream that the "heriditary characteristics" follows. Our physical features or just a more perfected blend of our parents as if it was Conan O'Brien putting their pictures together form some type of offspring.

Our interests, our talents, etc, generally stem from some trace in our families. Educationally, we're all products of what some textbook publishing company feels the average child should learn. The only different between you and the next guy is whatever your brain, which is a product of your parents, and their parents, and their parents parents...feels it should retain. The term "good genes" is not false at all. Sure some people are self-made millionaires, but their parents either had to deal with problems they could not control or they just made poor decisions. So, I guess that is what makes you, "you."

When you go against the grain, you are being "you." You're not following the same ethical code that the average person follows. There are no "good" people. There are the normal people and then there are people who are below average, your poor-decision makers. Those that go "above and beyond" they're just doing it for self-gratification more than to help others. If they're talking about it, they're trying to help their ego, not the subject they're helping. The people who truly do it just to help people are doing what they feel is normal. They are a product of the ethics driven into them when they were younger.

We're all products and somewhere down the road many of us will become factors. Not everyone, but the majority. So the next time someone tells you to be yourself, especially your parents, tell them you're already too busy being the product of someone else.