Self-perception and estimation… How you see yourself…
How does Irby tackle this topic? What does she suggest to readers in terms of viewing one’s self, and reaching a consistency of true happiness?
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I see myself as a low-key person. Although, I do find myself being a little outgoing from time to time. Close friends say I’m an outgoing, social, truthful person. Irby has been herself since the very beginning by being her real self. She is very realistic in terms of her own self. She suggests viewing our self as who we are although we might struggle here in there. But being comfortable in our own skin is something we should all be making a priority. Not caring what others have to say it should be on our terms on what we allow and what we don’t.
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Yes!!
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Samantha Irby knows who she is, what she wants and what she deserves. In her writing, Samantha does not compromise for anyone. Each chapter reveals a new side to her through different life experiences in which she embraces as parts of her identity. Each experience is a challenge. However, she stays proud and confident and in the end comes out happier because of it, even when it hurts more in the moment. She tells the reader the truth, she does not lie to make herself look better. She writes with confidence and does not care if we like or not, because she knows and loves who she is.
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Very true!!! Strong and generous to share her experiences and views…
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I see myself as a well rounded person, someone who is hopefully easy to get along with! Irby is realistic with her views on herself, she knows herself very well, her tendencies, what she does or doesn’t like, and stays very true to her beliefs. The novel is basically a “sit down and get to know exactly how Samantha Irby lives, breathes, and eats” so we also get an insight into her true and authentic self. She values self worth, she knows exactly what she deserves, and preaches the same for everyone else to know as well.
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I see myself as a very calm person who is down to do whatever. Irby does not hide what’s on her mind and does not try to hide who she really is. She has said nothing but the truth in each chapter. She is okay with people not liking her because she knows what she deserves and won’t settle for less. She suggests the reader to do the same, to know your value and not waste your time with someone who is not willing to like you for who you are. She really embraces self confidence and keeps it real in every word she says. She is an example of how saying what you think is okay even if others don’t like it because at the end of the day you are the only person who will truly be happy for yourself.
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Irby perfectly conceptualizes the idea of self-perception and self-identity. Irby always remains faithful to herself, never sacrificing any part of who she is for anyone else. Even as she dissects her own character with extreme self awareness, we’re able to see her resilience and her insecurities. Being able to recognize all the uncomfortable truths about yourself and still valuing and loving yourself regardless of all that is what I interpret Irby’s message to her audience to be. Knowing who you are, ugly truths and all, and still appreciating yourself despite that is how we can be truly happy with our own self-perception.
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Irby, throughout the chapters I’ve read, doesn’t seem timid or afraid to promote her true colors or behavior in public. I like that, why be afraid to be yourself? Considering the racial struggles that she may have had to deal with behind the scenes, Irby doesn’t let that change her or even fluster who she is on the inside. That’s important- if you can’t be yourself, you can’t be anyone else because everyone else is already taken. Irby is verrrryyt honest. She talks about the time she sharted into a greasy McDonald’s bag…can’t get more authentic than that. Irby also mentions the times she has dealt with anxiety attacks and feeling anxious in public settings due to how people might see her. In response to this, I believe the purpose of this specific book is to encourage self authenticity within individuals to not be afraid to be themselves in this world that she described as practically evil. I am my most authentic self always- and yes I have my moments where I prefer to be introverted but that’s just who I am. Who are “they” (other people with loud mouths)? These people don’t know you like you know yourself so what they say shouldn’t matter to you, the hateful remarks at least.
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From reading the first five chapters of Samantha Irby’s novel, one can soon recognize that she has gone through an immense amount of self-discovery and that she most definitely now knows who she is. I mentioned this in my two-page reaction but, Irby is unapologetically herself, she changes for no one. Even when she faces a challenge or life gets in the way she remains true to herself as she preaches to the readers that this is a key point in obtaining happiness. She goes through self-image struggles as we all do, whether that be with our race and or how we look, but although she goes through these struggles she manages to come out of them with positive outlooks and assures others that this obstacle can be overcame and then demonstrates to her audience how she did it. The experiences Irby shares with us from her life helped me and many others (I am sure) relate and learn from past mistakes and or situations where I could have chosen to simply be myself and choose to be happy rather than continue to struggle. Self-perception/self-image has always been a struggle of mine for as long as I can remember, I have always wanted to change something about myself. But, reading more and more of Irby’s novel I am starting to conclude that I do not need to change and the only way for me to be happy is to love myself and be myself, or else life is just going to become miserable.
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True…
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Samantha Irby knows herself, goals, ambitions, and her worth. She knows what she can bring to the table and knows what she needs to be happy. She knows what values to look for in guys and what are not good things about them too. She sees happiness as being happy with ones self in a physical and mental way. I think that is very true. I need to be able to love myself in the same ways too. I also want my partner or significant other to appreciate me for me. I want them to love me for my good values and my not so good values. I don’t want to feel less because I am how my partner wants me to be. I believe no one should make you happy, you should be happy with yourself but your partner should make you happier.
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I see myself as flawed, as one should be, and, for the most part, I’m happy with who I am. I am trying to make changes to myself, so that I can be happier with my body, but I know what my flaws are and I am improving myself. Irby tackles the self-perception of herself very realistically. She acknowledges that she has faults and embraces those, so that she can be her own person without discouraging herself because of her flaws. Essentially, Irby believes that in order to be happy one must accept themselves wholly and truly.
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I see myself as flawed, as I should, and, for the most part, I’m happy with myself. I’m trying to improve my body because that is the only thing I don’t like about myself, but I’m trying to do better. Irby’s self perception of herself is very realistic and objective because there is no bias to defend herself. She acknowledges her own faults and embraces them. Irby believes that if one can accept themselves as who they are then one can be happy with themselves.
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Be kind to yourself, remember!!
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Irby gives off the impression that she has completed the task of working on herself. She is happy with the person she is and isn’t afraid to express herself to the world. The confidence she displays is respectable, though this comes across to me as fake confidence. Her advice to readers is to accept yourself for who you are and be complacent with the cards life has given you. This will allow some people to achieve happiness because it forces a person to accept their insecurities and live with them. Though personally I don’t agree with her methods and I believe she still has insecurities in her mind. I have found in my own life to accept the insecurities I cannot control but to work or change the ones I can. This does not lead to much happiness short term because self improvement will always lead to stress. Though the long term satisfaction is what creates true confidence and happiness.
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Irby’s essays are all about embracing every aspect of your history and personality, whether they be “good” or “bad”. Her retellings of her life are extremely vulnerable and authentic, as if the reader is not a stranger but a close friend she is sitting at a bar and intimately sharing a story with. While Irby does mention her insecurities and shortcomings, she has an aura of confidence and outspokenness that makes it hard for the reader to judge her negatively. Her general outlook and attitude about life keeps her emotions generally positive, and it is easy for her to rebound and cope with stress or sadness with humor. Irby seems like she would be the type of friend you would always go to first when something crazy happens in your life you need to share, the type of friend who would embrace all the intimate and gross details about your life and shares theirs with you as well.
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After reading the first 5 chapters, I would say that Irby is all about staying positive and staying true to herself when it comes to how she sees herself. She is always keeping a positive mindset when she is reflecting on herself and I think that she is trying to get this across to the readers of her book as well. She wants to tell the readers that it is okay to have rough memories of yourself but as long as you stay true to yourself afterwards, you can continue to grow and improve as a person.
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Lots of people typically see the bad in themselves then the good. Some may try to hide their flaws and their self doubt while others might hide their positives to not be seen as egotistical. Irby seems to have possibly lacked the confidence to be who she is but through her writing she builds up her confidence and realizes that she does loves herself. She suggests that as long as you are happy with yourself then you have attained true happiness.
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I think Irby deals with self-examination and self-image by critiquing herself without trying to justify a preconceived notion of who she is. She doesn’t justify actions she knows are unbecoming, rather she embraces them. Her acceptance of unflattering behavior shows that she is seeking to know who she is, not who she wants to be. I believe that Irby would love for people to spend more time examining who they actually are, through their actions, instead of constantly negating negative behavior in hopes of perfection. Irby knows that she, and everyone else, act with imperfections. By coming to terms with this and disclosing it publicly we move toward a more honest and in my opinion healthier frame of mind. I love Irby for the ability to recognize who she is, faults included, and make light of the situation with a desire to move forward rather than be stagnated by embarrassment and self-pity.
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Irby goes into a state of constantly seeing how she could be better, overall announcing her mistakes and flaws publicly to take power over them. To recognize one’s flaws is a sign of true wisdom and maturity that not many people can claim they have, being aware of your weaknesses can lead to self-revelations about how to act in our modern-day lives. Irby claims over and over again that she’d rather just sit around with a bunch of snacks and food watching tv all day and that would make her happy, often going out of her way to make sure she enjoys that freedom to relax due to the stress of her childhood. If you know what you want and you know how to see yourself, you can rest in a state of freedom and security. I think anyone can talk about how badly they see themselves and how they wish they could change things, but talk doesn’t matter unless you stay true to your desires. Happiness in this world doesn’t just happen, it takes time and experience to cultivate knowledge in order to find a space where you can accept yourself and to know what that means.
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I see myself as a pretty chill person. I do a lot more observing than talking and I think that is a similar characteristic to Irby. She constantly is talking about other people and her observations about them but without actually talking to them. She says over and over again how she wants to stay at home and watch tv all day because supposedly that makes her happy. While also saying she doesn’t like going out. This makes her happy because she somewhat feels a sense of security when at home. Although I like to stay at home because of this security, I still like to go out a lot because that makes me happy. This sense of safety at home seems to be how Samantha finds her happiness.
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Samantha Irby is a confident woman and lives in the real world. She knows who she is and doesn’t try to conceal her identity or lifestyle what so ever in her writing. Do her own aims in life and beliefs match with my own? No not at all but that is ok because she does what she wants and overall lives a simple but happy life, I would say she is a realist. She doesn’t allow others to cloud her judgement or perception of the world but rather does what she wants and is brutally honest. I do not see any similarities between my life and that of Samantha Irby’s but that is okay as long as she is enjoying the life she is living with the choices she makes.
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Irby suggests to her readers that it is ok to not expect perfection when viewing yourself. Perfection isn’t realistic. We all having things about ourselves that are weird or don’t always make sense. There is this idea that you shouldn’t talk about your flaws and you should only show your best features. Irby goes against this idea and shows her readers that it is okay to talk abut all parts of you. Irby talks about her imperfections in chapter 1. Irby could have just simply stated that imperfections are okay but instead she decided to be open and share her personal flaws with her reader. To me this is so much more impactful because actions speak louder than words. She does a greta job of leading by example.
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I think Irby is coming from a place of acceptance. Accepting all your imperfections and flaws. Her stories seem to me like she tries not to take herself to seriously. She shares many of the struggles she has faced, both small and big with a sense of humor that allows the reader to feel sympathy but not pity for her. She’s able to reflect on things in her life with an attitude that helps her accept what is. Finding happiness isn’t possible if your expectations are unreasonable. She’s comfortable with who she is and makes no apologies for herself.
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I think due to her circumstances, Irby is all for finding your identity and accepting who you are and finding your happiness. I feel that the stories she writes are coming from a place of ‘here I am and there’s nothing you can do about it’, an almost effortless declaration of this is who I am and I don’t give a carp about what you think about it. I have really enjoyed this attitude coming from her. So I do think that she would be all for being yourself and owning your identity, as she has had to deal with many obstacles with this (Having a chronic illness, being African American, and on top of that being part of the LGBTQ). I doubt she would ever want to invalidate anyone else’s identity or experiences just by her storytelling.
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Most writers, including myself, use a roundabout way to share their own psyche. With metaphors, analogies, insinuations, and pretending they aren’t. Irby, on the other hand, seems direct. I can feel her hands in her work and I can feel her energy. She does very well at painting a picture of herself through her work. In this example she illustrates a very harsh self acceptance, and being unapologetically yourself.
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Samantha Irby is very upfront about who she is, want she wants, and how she views life right from the get go. As a reader we get introduced to the rawest for of her through the way she talks about real things in her life and how she tackled those experiences. We also get an insight to her thought process during different things. She suggests that readers do what makes them happy without thinking about how others might view it. She accomplishes this message indirectly as well by talking about how she has used that lesson throughout her entire life.
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Irby tackles this topic by writing with out a filter, and just letting the reader feel the rawness. She wants the reader to view themselves as who they are, if you are overweight then be confident, if you are tall be confident, if you are short be confident, be you and do not change it for anyone else. Being true to yourself is how you can find true happiness, if you are comfortable being you happiness is very easy to achieve.
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Samantha Irby does not try and hide anything to seem perfect like everyone else she says things just as they are. She wants people to get a feel of everything she has gone through. Even though Irby has had a pretty rough past she has learned to love herself through it all, just as she wants all of us to love ourselves the way we are! She doesn’t want you faking to be someone else just to fit in with certain people she wants you to be yourself and stick with the people that truly appreciate you
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Samantha irby portrayed in the novel that she knows what she wants. She has goals and ambitions and isn’t afraid to be herself. For me personally, I feel the same way in that I’m comfortable with myself and what my goals are. I think one of the keys to achieving happiness is to be comfortable with yourself
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Irby tackles self-perception and estimation in a great way. She tells us to first find out who we are and to accept ourselves for that reason since everyone is unique and that not one person can tell you to be something else for simply being what you want to be. Irby suggests to us that everyone has flaws and that they are beautiful and that the only way to achieve true happiness is to not be embarrassed by who you are.
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I see myself as an open arms kind of person. I find myself as a social, enthusiastic, outgoing, friendly, trustworthy, loyal individual. Samantha Irby shows this expressing her inner self through her writing. She shows her true self, even though she had some obstacles but that never made her change who she was, well… she might have changed for the better. What I mean when I say for the better is that she grew her own self to a better person, individual. This all comes when you have self-love and just don’t care what others think, what matters is that you are comfortable with the person you are. Being comfortable with yourself is a priority.
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I see myself as someone who tries but is also a mess at the same time. I try not to give up because I know if we try to put our mind on what we want the universe will see that and reward us later, but I slip and forget just as everyone else does sometimes. Irby’s perspective of herself throughout the story is encouraging as she basically says to keep your head high and yes people will have criticism but who cares. Irby also goes to express how life is short and why waste it worrying about something or someone who won’t mater in 10 years from now.
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