...On originality

i think its an interesting thing to be told to be 'original' or to be 'yourself'. After all isn't our definition of originality different from everyone elses? aren't 'ourselves' moulded by people and culture and environment? isn't our sense of uniqueness due to what happens around us? and perhaps a certain sense of constraint and fear..? i've battled with this issue a lot because if being original meant coming up with a completely new concept, i was TERRIBLE with doing that kind of thing. There are a rare few who have bright sparks of genius now and then, and even so its probably far and few between. My idea of originality was to take something from someone, be inspired by something and make it something fresh and something my own. that might of course be labelled 'stealing' by some other people so you see the dilema? i think at the end of the day we have to sit back and say 'to each their own' because truly, no one has a right to judge anyone else. Perhaps in the spur of the moment we say ugly things just to get it out of our system, but there is really nothing, there is really no issue. being yourself includes being comfortable in your own skin, something that take learning and takes time. if we truly accept ourselves for who we are, we will have confidence in our own ideas and dare to tell the world, and dare to reach for our own dreams. being original is just the way you want to express yourself. everyone has something about them, no one is 'just a follower'. i don't believe in there. everyone has a leadership something inside them. it might be something you're good at or at least better than anyone you know, the one thing and perhaps ONLY outstanding point about yourself. that is your original point. to be perfectly honest, everyone should go out and try to live. discover something new that you enjoy and work on it until you perfect it and don't be afraid to talk about new ideas and experiment with them because you never know what might lead up to it.