Am I A Good Person?

Have you ever found yourself contemplating your place in the universe? Have you ever had existential thoughts that have taken over your entire life? Have you ever asked yourself, “am I a good person?” It’s happened. We’ve all asked ourselves this question, but rarely have we come to an answer.

To ask ourselves about our own “goodness” is to ask ourselves, “What makes a person good?” Is it being loyal to one another? Is it the ability to keep a secret? Is it being there for the people you care about? The truth is, there is no single definition of a good person. There is no one way to be a good person. To be good varies with each and every person who walks this Earth.

Society has created the notion of goodness that we are so familiar with. Because of this, we expect goodness to appear a certain way. And if it doesn’t, then that goodness is in fact not good but actually bad. The same goes for good people. To be a good person, we must not be a bad person. But the simple truth is that the terms of good and evil are quite convoluted and interchangeable.

“The battleline between good and evil runs through the heart of every man.” - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Society is not as black and white as we would like to believe. Society is made up of us individuals. And we are all different shades of grey. Though we have differences, we are all treading the line between good and bad, swaying between both sides. Through our choices, we are both good and bad people. We, as individuals, are good and bad.

Source: Youtube

I’m sorry to say, but no matter what we do, what we say, how we act in a given situation or how right we think we are, there will be someone who wholeheartedly believes that we are the bad guy. Since the notion of being good and being bad are different with every person, there will always be one person who thinks that you are a bad person. All you can do is ask yourself, “do I think I’m a good person?” Because sometimes, your own conviction is all you need to be a good person and triumph in this world full of shades of grey.

By Zoya Sajid