Just Be Yourself

She wanted to fit in, so she wore dreadlocks. They looked silly on her. People shunned her. She tried shaving her head. They brought cards and money, thinking she had cancer. Went away angry when they learned she did not. “Why don’t you try being yourself?” her mother suggested. She did not think that would work because she did not like herself. She tried dancing and singing, and put herself into contests. Her dancing was bad, but her singing even worse. She alienated more people. “You are trying too hard, “her father told her. “Just be yourself.” That would not work, she thought, so she kept trying and trying. She ran up to people and demanded they be her friends. They began to cross the street when they saw her coming. Verifying her worst suspicions. They did not like her as much as she did not like herself.