"Know thine self."

I was just thinking the other day about Joe Cermatori, who spoke when my class was inducted into NHS 3 years ago, and that's what his speech was about - "Know thine self." This is what I wrote (typed?) in my journal about it:

The ceremony itself was nice. Joe Cermatori was the guest speaker, he graduated here in 2001, went to Princeton majoring in English Drama, keeping up with his acting and singing, and working on directing a few productions as well. Next year he’s entering Yale starting his doctoral work. He gave a great speech centered about Hamlet’s “To thine own self be true” speech, and how it should really be “Know thine self.” How character is the hardest part of the 4 characteristics concentrated upon in NHS, and how to be true to ourselves, we have to know ourselves, and be sure we don’t spend all of our time on advancing our résumés, but also time doing stuff like writing in journals and reading and just thinking, getting to know ourselves. Dad went on about how he had a very sharp speech, and how he’s a smart, wise kid, which amused me greatly, seeing that I’ve thought about a lot of the stuff he mentioned in his speech before now – the whole know yourself bit, only I thought about knowing oneself to respect oneself, not being true to oneself, but how much difference is there anyway?

Hahahaha. Funny how things change in a few years. I thought I knew myself so well then. That spring is when I first started feeling more aware of my life. Everything before that is hazy, blurry. But I remember isolated moments from that spring, on, so well. I thought I was just this strong, independent girl who didn't have time for assholes. Who interfered when her best friends were being hurt. Who didn't have a problem "preaching," who learned more from observing other people's mistakes than from making them herself. Now I'm not sure what I think, but I plan on figuring it out. I have somewhere to start now. I think this summer's going to be good for me. ( :
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