by Mike Lawson

Created on: August 17, 2008

Human beings are the only creatures that pretend to be something their not for the purpose of emotional fulfillment. Zebras don't try to be gazelles because "Gosh little Johnny Zebra, your mother and I want you to live a better life than we did, and to do that you have to go to gazelle school." Animals simply are what they are. They go about their day oblivious to the desires of the other animals. The birds don't try and swim, and the mammals don't try and lay eggs. The natural kingdom simply goes on with its cycle of being born, eating, reproducing, and eventually passing away.

On the other hand, humans will do things they don't want to to please others, or to make money. They'll tell everyone they want to be a doctor, to go to med-school and graduate top of their class, because it's proper for a gentleman of their upbringing to have such a serious and highly compensated profession. The truth is, they never wanted to be a doctor. They wanted to be an exterminator, or a plumber, or maybe even a garbageman. But Little Johnny human has something his zebra brethren do not : empathy.

Humans know what it's like to be disappointed. To work so hard for something, in this case a future for your child, only to have it dashed against the rocks when someone actually tries to follow their dreams. So naturally, having known what it's like to be disappointed,we try not to disappoint those we care about. The human capability of empathy is perhaps one of the most useful and dangerous emotions. It allows us to console those in pain, to comfort the sick and those who are suffering. It also is what causes us to hide out real desires from others

To hide our true selves from the world in the hopes to quell the expectations of others is self-defeating. Deep down, we know what we want. No desire to please others can hide that our deep dark secret is lurking within us. No amount of empathy others can change what the individual actually wants. To deny others of fulfilling themselves through your life can be seen as selfish, at least in this day and age.

There is no selfishness in being true to one's self. The selfishness lies in those who chose not to support, accept, or even acknowledge that your dreams can be different than what they dreamed they could be. To try and hide your true self from the world is harmful, and to hide yourself from yourself is impossible. Because deep down, you know the truth about who you are.

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