(First of all I intend this to be a serious thread.)
I’m 19 years old. I’m going to admit that I have been having a personal crisis recently. I’m also going to admit that it’s a crisis of manhood. It’s probably mostly because of my age. But I know it’s also because I’ve grown up without a father.
I’ve been questioning myself recently. This is a public and anonymous website, and as such I don’t want to make this too personal (nor do I think most people give a shit), but I’ll say that my life is different from a lot of my peers.
What makes a man? Is it how many women you sleep with? Is it how commanding and respected you are among other men? Is it how good of a father you are, and how well you provide for your family? Is it something else?
Your manliness is directly tied to several things:
your tolerance/capacity for grain alcohol and beer
your willingness to put aside any and all things in your life in pursuit of cold beer
your affinity for Chuck Norris
how many times you’ve seen The Expendables
how many animals you have killed
whether or not you vote Republican
whether or not you support gay marriage
how much strange pussy you get
how infrequently you express your feelings
how unwilling you are to change as a person
what kind of music you listen to
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on”;
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And - which is more - you’ll be a Man my son!
… any thread about this subject needs the obligatory “If” by Rudyard Kipling
For me, integrity and honesty are the two most important thing in a person. But let’s face it, it’s out of fashion. These days, you’ll get farther faster by being fake and picking on the side.