This Sunday morning as I rose early, I felt like writing about something, though I had no clue what to write about. Baffled, I was about to sit at my computer desk when I noticed a clipping from The Times and Democrat editorial page. The editorial was titled “Self-respect has to be earned and deserved.”

Since ‘self-respect’ is the character trait for Orangeburg County for August 2008, I took it as an incentive to write about self-respect.

Webster’s New Reference Library: A Handbook of Dictionaries defines “self-respect” precisely as: “Proper sense of one’s own dignity and integrity.” The subject matter seized me at that moment and stilled me to introspection. As I lingered around my memory lane to think about the most outstanding story that exhibited honor and self-respect, I thought about extraordinary stories evolving from very ordinary lives.

Suddenly, I recalled the story of 16-year-old Ffyona Campbell of Great Britain, who longed for admiration from others so much that she started and spent 11 years walking around the world. Her goal was to be recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records. Her long journey came to an end on Oct. 14, 1994, at the northern tip of Scotland before thousands of cheering fans as she was crowned the first woman to walk around the world. It was Ffyona’s finest day. At last, she found the admiration she craved.

However, her heart was heavy, for she knew she had cheated. While walking across the United States, she became weary and accepted a ride for a thousand miles. In the months to come, the shame of having cheated drove her to drugs and alcohol. She even considered suicide. To appease her conscience, she secretly finished the thousand-mile stretch of the United States between Indianapolis, Ind., and Fort Summer, N.M. in 1996. But even that didn’t help. Finally, she called the Guinness office and asked them to remove her name from the records. And then she publicly apologized on television, admitting her cheating.

Ffyona’s staunch reaction shows her determination to stand tall with self-respect and as a hero, not for what she did but for what she didn’t do. Ffyona freed herself by giving up the fleeting dazzle of the mundane world by coming out with clean conscience to live with constant peace and calm. Her conscience outweighed her desire to be world famous, though she had every chance to be so. But she chose to sleep more soundly at night.

The lesson Ffyona learned is a timeless one: It’s possible to live without the admiration of others, but what one can’t live without is self-respect. Many of us spend an enormous amount of time in trying to gain respect from others, but the truth is the one whose respect we most need is our own self-respect. As Plato said, “Let deeds match words” and 6th century B.C., Pythagoras advised, “But most of all respect yourself,” Ffyona courageously accepted responsibility for the mistake she made. The key word is self-respect.

Thus, this woman’s story exemplifies every element of the editorial: “Self-respect means nobility, dignified, high-toned, high-minded, magisterial, solemn, sober, grave, lofty, prideful because you’ve got real stuff to be proud of.” Further, the editorial continues, “…it has to be earned, deserved, unarguable. Self-esteem, self-efficiency, self-centeredness can be genuine or they are worthless.”

Mandakini Hiremath is a Claflin instructor and coordinator of the university writing center.

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