Nerdworld Soundtrack: 3 Doors Down and "Let Me Be Myself"

Yes, 3 Doors Down makes another appearance after they kicked off the 2009 MM's Nerdworld Soundtrack.

This time I've chosen their song "Let Me Be Myself." You can take a listen at the band's MySpace page. The lyrics are here.

So why did I choose this song (aside from the fact that I love 3 Doors Down)? It, like the gorgeously defiant "It's Not My Time," is in large part about being a strong individual.

Take a look at this line: "I guess I just got lost being someone else." Or "I left myself behind somewhere along the way . . . It's time to make my way into the world I knew."

There's been a lot of dissembling, duplicity, and double-talk on campus, and in a lot of ways, I often feel that I can't be fully honest with my opinion and speak my mind. And I am getting sick and tired of it. I feel like pushing back. Discretion is the better part of valor and all that, but there is a time and place for it -- and another time and place for sticking to one's guns. Add a dose of political frustration, and I am halfway out the door to a Tax Day tea party and self-expression.

Plus, to be honest, I've had a few Nerdmoots recently that found me eye-to-eye with a Nerd Lord who tried to get me to change my views with really bad argumentation, and I am definitely feeling defiant and intransigent. Gee, it wouldn't have been so bad if said Nerd Lord hadn't made it sound like his "argument" were all for my own good -- as if I hadn't a brain and a will of my own -- as if I were simply supposed to accept whatever he said because he was the one who'd said it.

I had been as courteous and diplomatic as ever (Mama didn't raise no fool), but I came away from that conversation feeling somehow . . . diminished, and I was appalled. The sheer effrontery of it! I don't care that he was a much older and more established Nerd Lord. I won't be cowed or manipulated. I won't. I'll make up my own mind, thank you very much! I might look all disarming in (admittedly adorable) Mary Jane heels, but in Nerdworld I'm no dewy-eyed naif. I was partially angry that anybody had thought that I were -- and therefore didn't bother to engage my intellect. (And I am STILL not convinced I was wrong on the issue, by the way.)

One last thought: hey, folks, you don't need anybody's permission to be yourself. To thine own self be true, as the immortal Swan of Avon once said, and he is so, so right.