Observations on Self-Reliance"Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles." This quote constitutes the closing two lines of “Self Reliance” by Ralph Waldo Emerson. I am very enlightened by his ideas in this article. “Trust yourself” was his advice, and many Americans heeded it. Not only did they listen during Emerson's lifetime, but his individualistic concepts have echoed to the present day. After reading the ideas expressed in "Self-Reliance", I have come to believe that self-reliance is the most important factor in my life. Emerson believes that a man should not be what he is not. "There is a time in every man's education when he comes to the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide." If a man is envious of others, he will ignore all his merits. If a man imitates other people, he will lose his identity, like suicide. It is common to find a woman like me envious of other people. I'm jealous if a girl in class is prettier than me. I am jealous if a classmate scores higher on tests. I'm jealous if my neighbor has a better car. But as I always find, when I praise the girl, people will say "you're beautiful too"; when I praise classmate, people will say "remember you got a higher score last time"; when I praise the neighbor's car, people will say "he spent money he didn't have". There is always a "better side" of myself, which I cannot see because it is hindered by my own jealousy. Imitation is the result of jealousy. When I was in high school, I tried to imitate a girl in my class because I thought she was pretty cute. I bought the same dress, the same shoes, had the same hairstyle and tried to act the same. After a month I was considered the least nice person in the class. I didn't get what I wanted, but I lost what I already had. I was born into a Chinese Christian family in Beijing, China. Under my mother's strict rules, I started learning piano and Kung-fu when I was six years old, and many other things that other children didn't learn. From then on I was always told I was the best and I always thought I was the best.