Sitting at a coffee shop, trying to get work done, you look up and take in everyone around you, you look up and the whole world is going and kind of looks like a movie, people talking, listening to music, typing on their computers, you see them, but you don't know them. You do know though that appearance can be deceiving, not everything you see is true.

Growing up, I used to always tell my parents I wanted to be like the people I saw on TV, I wanted to be the princess, the knight, everything that caught my attention, I wanted that to be me. I wanted to have the life that you see on the movies, the perfect life that always seems to end with a happy ending.

Every time I would tell my parents I wanted to be some crazy character, my parents would look and me and tell me that I needed to be more realistic, that I needed to start thinking of myself in a more productive way.

Obviously, it wasn't said in those exact words, but that was the extent of it, what they really wanted to say. After a couple of responses of that sort, I just simply stopped telling them I wanted to be like someone else. Instead, I started to look at myself in a more positive way, instead of looking at other people and thinking of how great their lives where I looked at myself and saw how great I already was.

The constant talks with my parents made me realized that the only person I wanted to be like was myself. It didn't matter that I had no happy ending, or that I failed a test in class when I should have passed, what matter was that I was aware of it and that it was only a step in my life that would guide me into the person I wanted to be.

Knowing I was choosing myself, allowed me to evaluate my life more, and I started to see what my real dreams were, what I really wanted to do with my life. I stopped looking at other people's careers and thinking I wanted one like theirs, because just like when you look up and see everyone around you, you see the surface, not their emotions or thoughts, which is what really matters.

So, I thank my parents for always guiding me into becoming the person I wanted to be, I thank them because they taught me to choose myself over everyone else around me knowing there isn't anyone better to be yourself than you.