JUST BE YOURSELF

Isn't it funny -- those expressions your parents used that helped form who you are today.

In the early years of my life -- when I was worried about how someone would perceive me -- my mother would say, "Just be yourself."

Who was I? What did that mean? As I was growing up, I wasn't really sure what "being myself" meant.

How does that relate today? I do know myself and, as a writer, am finding my "author's voice."

Well, I am reading an awesome YA novel. I mean AWESOME -- New York Times best seller awesome.

So, I say to myself, "Why can't I write like that?" And that's when my mother's words come back to me. "Just be yourself."

I can only be in my head, write my words...how do I know they won't be N.Y. Times ready. I don't. But, I do know that if I try to be someone else, write someone else's words...well, it just doesn't work.

To thine own self be true.