Anneli Rufus is a Berkeley resident and the author of the newly published book Unworthy: How to Stop Hating Yourself (Tarcher Penguin 2014). Here she writes about living with low self-esteem in a city she believes doesn’t have that issue: Cities, along with the people who live there, have personalities. Some are breezy, some banal. Some cities even seem to hate themselves, shrinking into their own skylines in shame. Collectively speaking, Berkeley is a city I’d characterize as having high self-esteem. You see it on the streets, in the parks, and especially in the supermarkets, theaters, restaurants, and cafés. Abundant spiritual and psychological resources notwithstanding, Berkeley can torment those who struggle with low self-esteem. The confident, yoga pant-wearing, chai sipping, tattooed bicyclist with an abundance of piercings and a cool hair-cut can be more than a little intimidating for those who aren’t so comfortable in our own skin. Or our own yoga pants. I often feel at odds with Berkeley, having suffered from low self-esteem since I was a child. I thought my Cal diploma would lift my self-image. Decades later, it has not. But the path out of low self-esteem starts wherever you are right now. It’s a matter […]
Anneli Rufus is a Berkeley resident and the author of the newly published book Unworthy: How to Stop Hating Yourself (Tarcher Penguin 2014). Here she writes about living with low self-esteem in a city she believes doesn’t have that issue: Cities, along with the people who live there, have personalities. Some are breezy, some banal. Some cities even seem to hate themselves, shrinking into their own skylines in shame. Collectively speaking, Berkeley is a city I’d characterize as having high self-esteem. You see it on the streets, in the parks, and especially in the supermarkets, theaters, restaurants, and cafés. Abundant spiritual and psychological resources notwithstanding, Berkeley can torment those who struggle with low self-esteem. The confident, yoga pant-wearing, chai sipping, tattooed bicyclist with an abundance of piercings and a cool hair-cut can be more than a little intimidating for those who aren’t so comfortable in our own skin. Or our own yoga pants. I often feel at odds with Berkeley, having suffered from low self-esteem since I was a child. I thought my Cal diploma would lift my self-image. Decades later, it has not. But the path out of low self-esteem starts wherever you are right now. It’s a matter […]