So I recently watched Legally Blonde for the first time in years, and the personality of Elle Woods struck me as pretty extraordinary. Okay, yes, I may be blonde and not completely objective, but at the same time, I am very different from the character in the movie. I hate pink. I don’t like little dogs. Shopping is awful. I’ve never had a manicure. Yet why did all of these things about her strike me as somehow extraordinary?

It was the circumstances. Very often, we are thrown into new situation in life and the first thing we do is conform. We look around and try to figure out what everyone else is doing so we can do the same thing. Before all of the worry about “standing out” and whatnot comes fitting in and making sure we aren’t doing anything so wrong that no one will like us.

But in the movie, Elle doesn’t do that. Why? Self-confidence.

I consider myself to be a rather confident person. Sure, there are weeks I feel like I am too fat, or too sarcastic, or too outspoken. But in general, I like to think I stand behind who I am without backing down. However, if I was in a situation like Elle, I would not have reacted the same.

I would never be able to be among dozens of people whose style, personality, life style were the exact opposite of my own and not conform. Oh, I would still be me, but I sure as heck wouldn’t let them see it. And that’s a problem.

The problem is that I think we too often fall back to our inner self. We know who we are and we can be confident in that, but letting other people see it is not so easy. We let people see who we truly are when we are comfortable. That’s why finding a college is so difficult sometimes, because a student wants to find a place where they feel comfortable so they can be themselves.

In reality, we are not always comfortable, and we should still let people see that. If you love to write with a heart shared pen in a law class, do so without a second thought. If you like someone who seems out of range, don’t hold back. Be Elle Woods; be the person who could wear a bright pink suit to a court hearing with no self-doubt.

Don’t settle for only letting yourself see the person you are confident of, let everyone else see it too. Learn to be comfortable with yourself in uncomfortable situations. After all, Elle was pretty happy.