Cool?

When I was growing up, to be considered "cool", a person had to be on the cutting edge of following the latest fads and fashions, preferably before others had done so. To be cool was to be trendy.

A "cool" person never did anything considered to be "uncool", for they had an image and a reputation to uphold. Cool people were never free to simply be themselves and do their own thing.

Essentially, "coolness" was a straitjacket, a facade that one had to always maintain in public, lest their popularity with others be destroyed. Coolness, above all, was based on what others thought of you.

Even as a kid, I thought the price one had to pay to attain this definition of cool was too high.

I've always marched to the beat of my own drummer, done my own thing, regardless of any cost to my popularity with others. For me, to blindly follow trends, was not to be cool; it was to be a follower, a conformist -- a sheep.

To this day, I do my own thing. I do what I think is right for me and I don't give a damn what others think about it.

To "be yourself", to do your own thing, regardless of what others think and to accept whatever consequences that entails to one's popularity, takes courage. And courage is always cool.

Self esteem has to come from within, and those who worry unduly about "image" and "reputation" are allowing others to determine their self-worth, which is decidedly not cool. Those with a solid sense of self know that if you take care of the things of substance, the "image" will take care of itself. Too many people put the cart before the horse, and overemphasize image to the detriment of substance, which is like buying a car for the paint job, without making sure it's mechanically sound.

I could go on more about image vs. substance, but that would be an entry of its own.

Thoughts?