Does anyone else see this as a hard concept to grasp sometimes? We’ve all heard it. Most of us have probably even said it. It’s supposed to be that “cure-all” advice. “I’m scared to meet new people” (be yourself) “Nobody likes me” (be yourself) “I don’t know what to do” (be yourself) “I’m really nervous about this job interview” (be yourself) okay, so maybe those were lame examples, but it’s late, and I am tired.
Be Yourself. That is just so hard sometimes. How much of me is really me? When I am not “being myself” then who am I being? What if I don’t like certain things about myself? Should I still be like that? Is improvement considered not being yourself? What makes people think I am not being myself? What if their view of me “being myself” is not me at all? What if when they tell me to start acting like “myself” I already am “being myself”, then how should I be? Another question- what if who I used to be is not who I am now…which is the “real” me? Can there be multiple ways to be myself or only one?
Confusion. You’d think that something that sounds so simple wouldn’t be this difficult to understand. Perhaps I am overthinking it, but you would too if you were constantly told to “just be yourself.”
Categories: extemporaneous notions
Lately, I’ve noticed how oblivious we are to things. When you are a kid, it’s typical to question everything and anything. Why is it that once you get older we don’t care enough to learn about things just for the heck of it? Sure, we learn the things we are told we need to learn- things in school, at work, etc. but what happens to that curiosity we once had?
”The greatest thing since sliced bread!” How often have you heard that phrase, or maybe even used it yourself? But do you know anything about it? Did you know that Otto Rohwedder, the guy who invented it, was from Davenport, Iowa? He wasn’t even a baker. He was a jeweler that owned three jewlery stores in Missouri, until 1916 when he sold those to finance his future moment of brillance.
Before that could happen, all of his blueprints for the bread slicer machine were burned in a fire at the factory a year later. In 1928 the machine was completed and he had something to show for all of this hard work. The only problem was that he was laughed at by most all of the bakers for this idea, and they thought the bread would go stale. It wasn’t until his son helped market the sliced bread that it was taken seriously. July 7, 1928 was the first day that bread was sliced and packaged commercially by his machine. Now Otto Rohwedder will be forever known as “the father of sliced bread.”
My english teacher would probably tell me I need a follow up/conclusion paragraph here. I don’t really want to though. I personally found the whole story to be incredibly interesting. Sliced bread is something we’ve heard about and used for so long but never really stopped to learn much about. It makes me want to learn about tons of other random things.
Otto Rehwedder
Categories: extemporaneous notions
