YOU Are SOMEBODY Important

Don’t let anyone tell you different

Every person should feel important and valuable

Life will have many ups and downs. There will be problems, trials, obstacles, hardships, and failures in everyone’s life. No one can escape the fact that life will not easy. It may seem like smooth sailing at times, but problems will come. There will also be successes in life.

Emily Dickinson was a poet who lived from 1830 to 1886. One of the poems she wrote is: “I’m Nobody! Who are You?”

I’m Nobody! Who are you!

Are you — Nobody — too?

Then there’s a pair of us!

Don’t tell! they’d advertise — you know!

How dreary — to be — Somebody!

How public — like a Frog —

To tell one’s name — the livelong June —

To an admiring Bog!

[From the public domain]

It is unlikely that Dickinson’s meaning of the poem was exactly as it sounds. She may have been trying to say how people always in the public view are scrutinized needlessly and sometimes cruelly. She seems to have been pointing out that a rather anonymous and ordinary life is often more desirable.

That becomes evident if you look at all the news about people in the entertainment fields, media, politics, and Royalty. Even their phone calls and whatever they say may be reported in the news. Their lives are not private. That seems to be what Dickenson was pointing out in her poem.

There was a television show which had a girl who had been victimized as a teenager. She thought she was a “Nobody” because of the mistreatment she received. She later retaliated against those who had caused her harm. She would often recite the first two lines of that poem about herself.

People need to feel that they have value. No one should have to feel like they are a “Nobody” in this life. Every life can have purpose and meaning. No one should be made to feel like they are not important.

Sometimes people say they are nobody to appear to be humble or to not brag. That is fine, but they need to believe that they really are somebody.

When I was in college, a girl I knew was told by a couple of professors that she should not date a certain young man. He was not a great student, and they told her that he would never amount to anything. He surprised them and became quite possibly the most successful person they had ever taught with regards to financial success. They under estimated him, and they did a disservice to him (and possibly her) in telling her and others derogatory remarks about him. [This story was related to me many years later by the man who had attained great success in the business world.]

That is no way for a teacher to treat any student. They should believe in them and treat all students with respect.

Many people have achieved great success in this life because someone believed in them. Teachers can make all the difference. Adults are important in building up young people so that they can find success in life.

If anyone treats you with disrespect, remember that YOU have great value. You are SOMEBODY.