BELIEVE IN YOURSELF

"One of the best ways to influence people is to make them feel important."

― Roy T. Bennett

"A solid answer to everything is not necessary. Blurry concepts influence one to focus, but postulated clarity influences arrogance."

― Criss Jami, Salomé: In Every Inch In Every Mile

"The purpose of influence is to "speak up for those who have no influence." (Pr.31:8) It's not about you."

― Rick Warren

"Don't walk in my head with your dirty feet."

― Leo Buscaglia, Living, Loving & Learning

"Believe in your infinite potential. Your only limitations are those you set upon yourself."

― Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart

"The only person who can pull me down is myself, and I'm not going to let myself pull me down anymore."

― C. JoyBell C.

Did you ever thought about the influence people around you have? I never thought about this until I got into eighth grade. But then, I got into eighth grade with a friend who continued to get into my class.

We both had the same talent, or I believed I did. He uses to draw like me, and then, the art teacher decides to put me into a competition. I was never a believer of win that competition. It was never my intention, but the art teacher liked me a lot, at least I think so.

The thing is, when you have pure intention into a competition, you normally will lose the competition. At least I heard that from my teacher." look. I want you to win because I know you can win". I didn't want to put my drawing into that competition. I was afraid and was not up to go into a contest with a bunch of kids from another school who I knew, they knew how to draw very well and compete. But that's not why, in every competition, my friend convinced me that I could not win, so I never put my draw into the competitions. Paule and Andrew, let's put these names, anyway. Paule use to draw like me, and she was very supportive of my draws, Andrew used to draw like me, but he always criticized my draws. Although they both were close friends, we use to hang out everywhere.

Then, the day the Art competition opened in the city, and the teacher told me, almost force me to go into that competition, Andrew started to convince me in all of the ways that I could not win but was not in a mean way. I actually thought, "well, he must be right, I cannot win, and I will probably lose my time and be stressed out because I knew I was too anxious, until today, but less.

The Art teacher told me, "I am not letting you out of this competition. You are into the competition rather, you want it or not". I was like, "ok, but Andrew is right." My other friend Paule encouraged me. She told me, "your draw is so highly able to compete than any other draw of any kid in this city. "

The thing is I was never a fan of the audience, I never liked that, but the Art teacher signed me up even knowing I didn't want to compete.". Later on, I realized that I was listening to the wrong person. I thought "why my draw is not that good? Is my draw so bad that I cannot compete? ". The mixed voices of Paule and Andrew were in my head. But I was in the competition because of the teacher's decision, not mine.

I sit down in the School with my two friends and other kids from the School, and I draw a normal draw, like in my heard. The teacher loved and supported me. She was so excited. Andrew told me like that," Lene, your draw is good, but you know there's no way you can win, do not stress about it." I was like, "thanks for the emotional support. I will not stress about it.". Paule was like, "I really like your draw, omg you're totally winning, me too". It was two, totally opposite sides. The teacher put all of the kids that she choose into the competition, including Andrew and Paule. I was definitely not expecting to win. It was never my intention to go into any competition, but I drew a normal draw, I criticized my work so much in my head, and I gave the credits to a class colleague's negative opinion.

I went to the competition. When was the next Monday I walked into the class, the teacher hugged me and put a little star into my t-shirt. I was like, "this teacher is crazy'. But she was just happy because from the all School, my draw was selected to compete with the city's draws with all of the other's schools. I could not believe it. Actually, I was quite chocked. From that day on, Andrew never hangs out again with Paule and me. I didn't understand why he was so upset because I competed. Paule was so excited for me. Then the teacher told me," when you do something good, you have to surround yourselves with people who are happy when you win because jealous is a dangerous thing." I never forgot those words.

So whatever work you are doing in your life, give yourself some credit and surround yourself with people who are happy when you win. The influence over your life is something dangerous, and you should never give this power to anyone.

I unbelievably won that city competition. My teacher was much more excited than me because she was the Art teacher who had a kid from the School who won the competition. Later on, Andrew confessed that my draw was good since Paule kinda forced him to do it.

From that day on, I realized that I could not trust any person. And that's totally fine. You should not expect people to have the same beliefs, morals, or values. Every person is raised differently. Everyone has different beliefs. People can do a lot of things when it comes to win.

I was with the medal in my chest. Standing with my teacher, with practically all the class and School watching the teacher talk and talk happy, my friend Paule happy, but not Andrew in the middle of those people. I was like, "Why can someone not accept your win?."

So, Paule was the right friend. Be aware of any toxic influence you have. I constantly believed I could never win any competition because of a crazy friend who made me believe my draws were not good to compete. Until the day my teacher forced me to go into the city's biggest art competition, and I won. So give yourself some credit in whatever work you're doing, and perhaps life can make you win.

Don't be afraid to cut any friend who is like Andrew. Keep Paule's around. People who are happy when you're happy are the right people.

"Believe in yourself. You are braver than you think, more talented than you know, and capable of more than you imagine."

― Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart

LENNY

"Good morning, good afternoon, good night, whatever time you're reading this, have a good day."