I say what I want to say and do what I want to do. There's no in between. People will either love you for it or hate you for it.
EminemRead
I don't even know how to speak up for myself, because I don't really have a father who would give me the confidence or advice. And if you're always the new kid, you never get a chance to adapt, so your confidence is just zilch.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the impact of absence in parental guidance on a person's self-confidence.
In this quote, Eminem expresses a deep personal struggle stemming from the lack of paternal support in his life. He reflects on how this absence has affected his ability to advocate for himself and build confidence, particularly as he faced the challenges of being an outsider or 'the new kid.' The mention of confidence being 'zilch' emphasizes the profound effect of a father's guidance on a child's development and self-esteem.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of parental guidance.
I say what I want to say and do what I want to do. There's no in between. People will either love you for it or hate you for it.
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime.
Say there's a white kid who lives in a nice home, goes to an all-white school, and is pretty much having everything handed to him on a platter - for him to pick up a rap tape is incredible to me, because what that's saying is that he's living a fantasy life of rebellion.
I don't even know how to speak up for myself, because I don't really have a father who would give me the confidence or advice.
My thing is this; if I'm sick enough to think it, then I'm sick enough to say it.
I've accomplished enough with the music that I haven't had to go out there and do other things to over-saturate.
If you lie to your husband - even about something so banal as how much you drink - each lie is a brick in a wall going up between you, and when he tells you he loves you, it's deflected away.
There have been articles saying that all women need to read my book. I ask, why not all men? In fact, that would be even more valuable because we women want to sit down with men and tell them - this is how we feel, this is what we go through.
Stories about mental aberration and oddity only make sense in context. Just how do people live with someone who is peculiar, gifted, strange or alien? It's odd because there's a little part of me that wants to write about exotic, strange bizarre subjects. Instead, I've rather reluctantly realised that what I write about is families.
You're not more than one generation from poor white trash, are you, Agent Starling?
And if I had not a letter to write myself, I might sit by you and admire the evenness of your writing, as another young lady once did. But I have an aunt too, who must not be longer neglected.
I think it's easy to mistake understanding for empathy - we want empathy so badly. Maybe learning to make that distinction is part of growing up. It's hard and ugly to know somebody can understand you without even liking you.
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