Confidence is something that we all deserve to have. Like riding a bike, learning a sport, or getting an education, Confidence is something that takes active practice to acquire. One of my favorite quotes of all time I heard, believe it or not, on an EDM song with Escape the Fate and PhaseOne. It goes, "It's not the years in your life, it's the life in your years--and everything that you want is on the other side of fear. Fear. The exact opposite of confidence. Fear is what controls many of our decisions, and the most ironic part is that the more we fight against our fears, the more we dispel them, disassemble them, until they lose all of the power that they have over us. Alopecia was one of the scariest parts of my life, and I was afraid that if I didn't have hair, I would never be loved and accepted. That's why after the first two girls I ever liked told me that they would have liked me more with hair, after I was slapped on the back of my bare head, after a kid tried to break my hand JUST for being bald, I cowered and wore a wig for nearly three years. Then it hit me--why should I succumb to everyone else's desires and live my life in fear, never truly living the way that I want? What kind of a life is that? Bending to other people's wills, and knowing the day that I die, I will forever regret never TRYING to be confident enough to live life on my own terms.