i must say that i’m quite amazed with the response I’m getting from posting personal feelings. I was quite scared at first because this is a record of me that will exist on the web forever. But I also realized that by not showing it, I’m not really showing me. I’m pretending to be someone I’m not. Exterior seemed fine … confident, worked hard, day to day routine. Inside, I wasn’t good. Even today, I’m hiding myself from most of the people I interact with because it’s not socially acceptable to really be me.

So i ask all of you out there, do you know you? are you being true to yourself? Ask yourself this, last time you were feeling down, and someone you knew met you in the hallway and said, “hey, how are you?” Was your answer “good”? Why do we feel programmed to always show that we’re positive? Why must we always be “good”?

I want to thank each of you that wrote me and told me about your personal story and commented about mine. I haven’t responded to all of you yet, but I will. I wanted to thank you for reaching out to me. I’ve learned through this process that I am not alone and you are a big reason I’ve felt this way. Some of you I haven’t talked to in years (or decades for that matter), and some I just met once. It doesn’t matter. We’re all the same, and that means we can identify with each other.

As much as we appear different in life, we were all born the same. An innocent child without any knowledge, without any sense of life. We developed into the people that we are because of the environment we were in and the methods our parent(s) used to raise us. But in the end, beyond the emotional layers, the behaviors, skin color, religion, we are the same.

Some may laugh at that statement and say, how can you say that? Religion, ethnicity, environment – all of those things make us different. And that is your choice. That is how you want to view the world. But if you can get beyond that and dig deep down, you can see that we are similar.

Jenn used to tell me, look into a person’s eyes and see that you and that person are the same. See the similarities. Don’t focus on the differences. That is how you will connect with others. That is how you will move beyond “fake” and be real.

So if you get a chance, look into some one’s eyes and see them. See how you’re like them. And in the process, see how that makes you feel. I think you’d be amazed at what it does for you. I was!