I have almost always had trouble worrying about what people think of me, to the point where I’m stressed out about it, but then I think to myself about how Diogenes didn’t have a care in the world about what people thought about him, For example one of my favorite stories about him is when another Greek philosopher named Plato tried to define man in the simplest terms possible, and he came up with a definition he liked which was, featherless biped. When word traveled to Diogenes about Plato's definition of man, he decided to pluck a chicken and bring it to Plato's class and shout, “Behold Plato's man!” It makes me feel better to think about his stories among other things and then I say to myself I shouldn’t care so much about what other people think, share my opinion and thoughts more often and relax and not stress out about the little stuff. Diogenes always said what was on his mind and his opinion, whether it be good or bad. So that is why Diogenes is a person who significantly influenced my life. I will be writing about three ways he has impacted my life.

When I was little I was a social kid. But for some reason now I’m not, and I care way too much about what people think of me. With some people, it’s good to care what they think; But if a complete stranger says something to me, I’ll think about it in a negative light all day. The first time I heard about Diogenes, I was watching one of my favorite channels on Youtube. I stumbled onto a video about him, and he just kind of stuck in my mind, Listening to the stories and quotes about him made me think, “If he can do half the stuff he does and not care what people think about him, why can't I?” So now I’m going to try to accomplish a goal of mine to not to care some much about what people think of me.

Another way he has influenced my life is with me sharing my opinion, speaking out, and being more social. I’m almost always very social when it comes to my friends, but when it comes to people I don’t know or have only talked to a few times, I have a hard time being socializing with them. I kind of just sit there silently with my head down, but I do try to be as polite as possible. A big part of Diogenes personality is that he shares his opinions or theories with other people, for example, he would say his opinions or random stuff to everyone, even strangers whether it be nice or sarcastic. He would always share his opinion, and I respect that about him.

One more way that he has influenced me is how most of the time he was almost always relaxed. Even when Alexander The Great went to meet him, he was still nonchalant. Now the story behind Alexander The Great meeting him is he had heard a great deal about Diogenes and decided to go see him in person, so he went to Athens Greece and had eventually found him sunbathing just outside of town and when Diogenes saw Alexander, Alexander greeted him and said “I have heard a great deal about you, is there anything I can do for you?”, and Diogenes replied “You can step aside a little so as not to keep the sunshine from me.”, and Alexander wasn’t even mad. I tend to overreact and stress out or worry about things. Then I remind myself about how relaxed he was, and I try to relax.

These are the reasons why he has significantly influenced me and my lifestyle. I thought he was a really cool person and he was fun to learn about, and while learning more about him I thought of things like, ‘Hey why don’t I try to not care what absolute strangers think of me’ or ‘why not share things and relax a bit more.’ In conclusion, I’m pretty happy I clicked that random video on Youtube about him.