K'Naan, in a remarkable Op-Ed piece in the NY Times, relates a Somali fable which speaks to all of us:
"The fox, they say, once had an elegant walk, for which the other animals loved him. One day, he saw a prophet striding along and decided to improve on what was already beautiful. He set out walking but could not match the prophet’s gait. Worse, he forgot his own. So he was left with the unremarkable way the fox walks today."
In the remainder of Censoring Myself for Success, he describes how he has been pressured to change his Somali "walk." How many of us, especially those still in school or professional training feel compelled to imitate the gait of others?