To know who you are

A dear friend once taught me, that to know who you are is to know who you are not.

The realization of truth would confront one in the face with a harsher blow when one deals with the reverse.

It is with more conviction and concentrated perseverance that one would deny what one is not, rather than admit what one is.

You are not Paris Hilton.
You are not Hugh Dancy.

But you are also not poor.
And you are definitely not ugly.

“You are hopeless”, they think.
“I am hopeful”, you say.
You are the opposite of what you are not