Be true to yourself

Enzo Amuele
Octavia Tsibes

Every person has a shell. Without this shell, one cannot live. It protects us from the outside, the people, the environment and most importantly, the society we live in. But the shell is special. It covers us outside. It can protect us from anything we want but the one thing that the shell can’t protect us from is the most dangerous of all of them and that is from ourselves.

This shell appears when a human first lies to itself. It hides its feelings, torments itself and manages to cover its true form. The reasons for doing so are endless. Nonetheless, the shell begins to grow. Think of it like mould. The more something rots or goes bad, the more the mould grows. It is the same as the shell. The lies and the secrets build up just as the shell does. One needs to ask themselves this. How can you break out of your shell? Is it possible?

So, the shell begins to get thicker and thicker. Pretty soon, the average person is hiding their true self. The shell acts as a wall to keep the true person inside. In some cases, the shell gets so thick that the person doesn’t know who they are anymore. They are so used to keeping their feelings bottled up inside that they begin to confirm if they “fit in” to society. When a person abandons their true self, they blank out. Soon, you have a whole crowd of people, all walking around, emotionless and barren. The average person may not notice it, but a person without a shell will. It has taken over you and the shell protects you from anything but the one thing that the shell failed to protect you from was the one thing that scares you the most and in this case, the shell has won.

Everyone tells you that you are special and unique, feeling pleased with yourself when you see another person telling somebody else the same thing. We are all special and unique, right? Well, if we are all special, then how does that make us ALL unique? At the end of the day, we are all the same. Being told something is one thing but proving that in fact, you are extraordinary is a whole different matter. So that brings us to the most important point. Is it possible to break out of your shell? Or are we meant to walk around with one forever, considering the fact that we can’t live without one?

Be true to yourself. That is the message at the end of the day. Don’t be ashamed of it. To break out of your shell takes a person going beyond extraordinary measures. And there are people like that in the world. Hard to find, they are, but they’re out there. Start out easy. Begin to let yourself think things. Go outside your comfort zone. By doing these small things, every day, you begin to let your true form shine. Don’t ever let somebody tell you-you're not special. Everyone is but in their own way. And that’s what makes us all unique. Not the fact that somebody tells us we are. But the fact that we have proved to ourselves that we are, in fact, extraordinary.

Yet the most important question has still not been answered. Can we break out of these shells? Probably not. But do not think I am contradicting myself. The shell is still needed to protect us from the people who still have their shells on. These people think that if you are not like everybody else, you are not special. They think if you are different, there is something wrong with you. But it is quite the opposite. At the end of the day, they are the ones who are lying to themselves. If the shell is not possible to get off, try to peel off layers, one by one. When you are finally true to yourself, that’s when your individuality shines through. So congratulations. You are in control of your shell. It is no longer in control of you. Someday, there comes along a person who is fully able to dispose of their shell. So keep your eyes out. That person could be you.

octavia@myzone.com.na