Silly

Picture faces. Everyone teases about the "duck faces," the "sorority pose," the "kissy faces," etc - Facebook is exploding with them. Some people take pictures that way seriously and others do it because it's entertaining. Me? One of my best friends and I started making faces at each other in the hallway in high school. Simply because we got tired of smiling at each other every time we walked by. We went to separate colleges and I continued doing this with my sorority sisters out of habit. They thought it was odd at first and then sooner-or-later everyone joined in!

Now, I'm not trying to take credit for the making-faces-in-pictures trend, although I have to say, I feel like I may have had a part in this....haha. :) What I am trying to say, is that I agree with Ms Poehler. The ability to be silly: look silly, act silly - and not only not care what others think, but also to be able to laugh at yourself in the process, shows great maturity and self-confidence.

I have come to believe that every single person on this planet has issues with self-confidence. Growing up, my sister was (still is) the loud and outgoing one and I was the quiet, introverted one. The funny thing is, that when we were little, I was the outgoing one and only our mom knew - I didn't even know! Despite all of that, I find myself struggling with self-confidence sometimes - my doubts get the better of me. I think that this is normal and we all have to work through that in our own way and in our own time.

But being the "yes man," being silly, being able to say "why not?" and try something new, can really help your self-confidence. I've always been the first two, which amounts to being a little bit quirky. But I recently went through a bout with self-confidence and have found that when I hit "why not?" I was able to finally feel confident again. Because I've discovered that football is actually fun to play (and tackle is WAY better than flag), and that I'm not quite as bad at basketball as I've been thinking my whole life (although, let's face it, I'm not really any good either). While these are small things, they can be powerful and take you very quickly down the road to self-confidence.

And, let's be real, being silly is just that much more fun. ;P