keep your head up.

Quoting Eleanor Roosevelt 

Luckily for me, I was raised as a pretty confident child. I never doubted myself when I spoke, when I answered questions in class, or when I advised someone else. I was shy and a little self conscious when I was in middle school, but other than that little stumbling block, I've always been a proud, confident girl. 

But we sometimes mistake confidence for intelligence, and that's where we go wrong. 

I am not confident because I think I am the smartest person in the world, but because I shouldn't be and am not ashamed of growing as a person. (I do sometimes think I'm the smartest person in the world, but that's not what makes me confident in myself.) 

Needless to say, I don't like to be wrong. If you know me at all, you know that. I don't like to be wrong at all, but I've grown to accept that I'm going to be. A lot. And that's okay with me. 

I think I took a huge step in college when I stopped worrying what the students around me thought of me. There are 26,000 of us here at UNC, and I don't have to answer to any of them for what I think and what I say. Now, when I think that there was a time when I actually hesitated before speaking my mind because I wasn't sure what anyone might think of me... I have to wonder what I was thinking. 

College is really good at teaching you how to be confident — because you have to be. The shy kids sitting in the back row probably won't earn the same grades as the actively participating students in the front. And recitations, if you have them at your college, will probably kill you if you don't speak up at least once in a while. 

When your teacher asks a question, you should try to answer it, even if you might be wrong. When you're confused, you should ask about it, even if you think you might sound silly. When you know you can do something, you should do it, even if everyone else around you doubts you. 

At the end of the day, you only have to answer to yourself. Will you be proud of yourself for being yourself, or will you regret what you never said aloud?

Pick your head up and hold it high. You have no reason to be ashamed and no reason to hide.

Be confident in yourself.