A Quote by Ralph Ellison
It took me a long time and much painful boomeranging of my expectations to achieve a realization everyone else appears to have been born with: That I am nobody but myself.
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It goes a long way back, some twenty years. All my life I had been looking for something, and everywhere I turned someone tried to tell me what it was. I accepted their answers too, though they were often in contradiction and even self-contradictory. I was naive. I was looking for myself and asking everyone except myself questions which I, and only I, could answer. It took me a long time and much painful boomeranging of my expectations to achieve a realization everyone else appears to have been born with: That I am nobody but myself. But first I had to discover that I am an invisible man!
When I realised that I had feelings for men as well as women, at first I was worried and frightened, and there was a certain amount of 'Who am I? Am I a criminal?' and so on. It took me a long time to come to terms with myself. Those were painful years - painful then and painful to look back on.
I am an alcoholic. It took me a long time to admit that to myself. It took me a long time to admit it to my family, but I am.
Or I can choose to force myself to consider the likelihood that everyone else in the supermarket's checkout line is just as bored and frustrated as I am, and that some of these people probably have much harder, more tedious or painful lives than I do, overall.
I'm from Louisville, Kentucky, and nobody gets out of there. So I'm like, how am I gonna get out of there? Nobody else can. So it took some time. The struggle made me realize I didn't really want to be 'normal' anymore.
It took me a long time not to judge myself through someone else's eyes.
My whole life I've been the one to look myself in the mirror whenever everyone else is doubting me. I'm the one that had the most confidence in myself and I always betted on myself, and it's worked out for me each and every time.
It took me a long time to understand not to get caught up in other people's expectations. It really comes down to creative fulfillment. It took me a while to realize I don't want to just be on a show to be on a show.
I always knew that the only thing I wanted to do was act, but it took me a long time to say it out loud to anyone, let alone myself. I am surprised by how dogged I have been in wanting to make a living as a respected actress.
It took me a long time to blossom. Everyone else understood how to socialize and how to look. I didn't get the memo.
I have great skills. I can fight anybody, anywhere, anytime. I have done it in the past. I am on a different level than everyone else in the game of boxing. Nobody taught me how to fight. I was born a fighter. Everybody else was taught. That is the difference. I would rather show them than talk about it.
It took a long time, and a lot of years, for me to get comfortable with myself, like the way I am now.
Honestly, you can't manage expectations. It has nothing to do with you. It has everything to do with everyone else. And everyone else is going to have expectations, and all you can do is do your job and do your best and be true to yourself.
It took me a long time to realize that being a girl is so much more powerful than being a guy, but I really saw myself as boy for a long while.
I was raised to sense what someone wanted me to be and be that kind of person. It took me a long time not to judge myself through someone else's eyes.
Never before have I written so long a letter. I'm afraid it is much too long to take your precious time. I can assure you that it would have been much shorter if I had been writing from a comfortable desk, but what else can one do when he is alone in a narrow jail cell, other than write long letters, think long thoughts, and pray long prayers?
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