"Just Be Yourself"

That simple three-word phrase has been uttered by many people throughout my lifetime. It seems like recently this phrase has been spoken by someone after I have vented to them about my singleness. There are times in my life when I really feel like I will never meet the right person, and then invariably someone will say, "Just be yourself."

Well, I am, at my core, a "nice" guy. The old saying goes that "Nice guys finish last." Well I do believe that to be true, to an extent. But, I'm not going to change who I am, and I just read something that has given me a lot of hope for the future.

I was perusing the Facebook page of a friend of mine, and I decided to take a look at her "25 Random Facts" posting. This posting has been making the rounds lately, and I have really enjoyed learning more about my friends.

I read one fact that intrigued me. In essence she mentioned how she had been engaged twice before, but then she realized that the "bad guy" wasn't going to make her life complete. Then she met her husband, and she realized that a "good guy" would be her soulmate.

Reading that put a huge smile on my face. I know how happy this friend is, and it is nice to know that her husband is a good guy. He's not an asshole or a jerk. Instead he's a great father and a lucky man, because my friend is awesome.

One caveat...I don't want anyone reading this to think that I am just a wimp. There's a difference in being a good, nice guy and being a wimp that gets walked all over. So in typical "guy fashion" I need to puff out my chest and emphasize this point with a story. :)

I went to dinner with a close friend of mine a couple of weeks ago. We weren't at a particularly fancy place, but we did use the valet parking that they had available at the restaurant. After the dinner was over, the valet attendant told us to wait inside, while he went to go get my car.

At this time, a very intoxicated guy came through the front door. He walked behind me, and in the process, stumbled over a part of my wheelchair. It was completely an accident, and I instinctually apologized to him, even though I had not done anything wrong. This guy then shot me a very dirty, pissed off look. He even looked like he was thinking about taking a swing at me.

Now, I have never been in a fight. Sure, I've wrestled with my brother, but who hasn't? But, I have never been in a legitimate fight. However, this guy did not frighten me. I ignored him, because the attendant was approaching with my car, but I was not intimidated.

First of all, I have always believed that if anyone ever messed with me when I was out in public, some random guy would be there to help. It doesn't look good for someone to start a fight with a disabled guy. So, I'm sure that someone would "have my back".

But, I'm also very confident in my upper body strength. I can bench press a large amount of weight, and I am confident that if I ever needed to defend myself, I would be able to. On the drive home, I asked my friend about this, and she told me that she had no doubt that I would have been able to take care of myself.

So...back to my main point. :) I'm going to continue being myself. I'm going to continue to be nice, caring, sweet, funny, intelligent, sarcastic, etc. I've tried the "asshole" thing in the past, and that doesn't work for me.

Thanks to reading my friend's post, I know that I am on the right track. I'm sure that when she wrote her post, she had no idea she was going to affect my life. But she did, and I'm very grateful.

FYI, if you ever see me out, and you trip over my wheelchair, it wasn't my fault. Don't get pissed. :)