An Essay on Self-Confidence

A man by the name of Mark Twain once said, ”A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval,” and he hit the nail on the head with that one! Many people thirst for the approval from their peers, family, and even strangers but, little do they know that acceptance begins with them. People should accept themselves for who they are because they’ll have confidence, be less stressed and last but, not least, be happy! The sooner you learn to accept yourself, the happier you will be. Happiness is what everyone wants, but what they don’t realize is it starts with loving who you are. This past summer I got an opportunity to listen to a lecture by a young 13 year old boy who was and still is a burn victim. When he was little 80% of his body was completely burned in a fire. It took him a very long time to heal, but during that time and long after he was very depressed. He realized he would never look “normal” again and that got him in a very depressed state. People stared at him when he went out in public and all he wanted was for people to accept him. As years went by he realized that he was still the same person he was before the accident the only thing that had changed was his appearances. He realized he loved speaking, so he decided to get into motivational speaking. Ever since he was 10 he had been speaking to people about his condition and how to overcome not just the physical but the mental obstacles. When he spoke to people in the room I was sitting in he had the biggest smile from ear to ear. He is an amazing example as to how self-acceptance leads to happiness. People now see how happy his is and they realize that he is “normal”. His happiness is all because he learned to accept himself and in turn others began to be more accepting of him too.

Everyone says you can see confidence beaming from someone’s eyes. When you learn to accept yourself, you gain confidence which others can see. Confidence is a trait that is evident as soon as you