Cornerstones of Confidence

Realize that you are different. You come from a different place. I've never realized this before, but a lot of insecurities happen when you don't match up to others. For example, when someone is talking to you about a band that you've never heard of, and they assume you know what they're talking about and you're afraid to say you don't understand so you just sort of go along with it. Part of the social conformity theory is that people want to believe they're all from the same culture, even though they aren't. People feel cooler when they can talk about how they watched the same shows growing up. I need to know that I am from a different culture - call it a subsubsubculture. There are as many cultures as there are people, so when I don't know something, I shouldn't be ashamed to say it. There are things that are a part of my world that other people haven't even heard about before, even though to me it's very natural to know them and what they're all about. I just need to keep patience with myself and everyone else.

Get Smarter: Read a Book!

You've probably heard a teacher mention at some point, how people who read a lot are better spellers. They're also better writers, better speakers, better at grammar, more open to new things, more creative, and etc.

Reading is nourishment for the mind. Each book you devour takes you on a journey, teaching you, shaping you, persuading you, exposing you to new ideas, developing you, and changing you - if you open your mind. I've seen those kids in class who are -sure that they aren't going to gain anything by reading an assigned book...and they're usually right, while the kids who went ahead and read with their mind open, usually learn something. Imagination is key. Inspiration.

Books can be your life companions. My mother read me The Hobbit when I was six years old. Later, I didn't remember much of it; there was a dragon, and some gold, and a dwarf king who died. But when I was old enough to understand it on my own, I reread it and loved it. Now I reread it every once in a while.

Words are tools. Reading stretches our subconscious, teaching us vocabulary and spelling. Spelling is a neuromuscular skill, meaning that you have to stretch it a lot, which reading does for you. I suspect vocabulary is also a neuromuscular skill. In any case, it's pretty commonly known that people who read more have a larger vocabulary and are better spellers.

Books give us information, especially non-fiction. Even those puffed-up self help books can teach a few things (although they take too many words to say a thing). Kids these days tend to use the internet to do their research. If they have a paper for which they are required to cite a book source, they usually flip through the book, find one relevant quote, and only use that. Heaven forbid that they actually read the book. The problem here is that the internet, while a great place to do research, is also not known for its reliability. It's also way too convenient. Kids get used to just being able to type in what they're looking for and getting thousands of results back. While this isn't a bad thing, they also need to know how to find what they're looking for in a book.

The library is my friend. It's the community's friend. Anyone can go to a library. Lately, budget cuts have put libraries in trouble. Read more about this crisis here, here, and here.