Character 101

Your reputation is very important. It can help you , make you look good. But we all know, bad reputations exist. If you currently have a bad reputation, dont worry. I mean, yea it helps to look good to others, but who are they to judge.
Reputation is what people see. It is a public opinion of you. Basically, it's on the outside.
Character is what you really should be concerned about. Now everyone messes up, some worse than others. But, once you realize that mistake, and possibly even change your ways, you can come to a peace with yourself. However, people still love to judge and you may have a slightly tampered with reputation. Okay, maybe even a horrible reputation.
Whenever you feel you can't deal with it anymore, think back to character. Character is from within. It is defined by what you are made of on the inside, your core. Basically, it is who/what you REALLY are. You know your character better than anyone else. People have no place to judge since everyone is severely flawed, but others will always look at your situation harshly. Don't be concerned with others opinions. Be respectful about it, but let it in one ear out the other.
People talk and talk about reputation vs character all the time. It is 99% different than what people make it out to be. Having a bad reputation is horrible. It sucks. No better words for it. It is completely humiliating and makes you want to go under a rock and hide. Stares, whispers, comments.. you hear it all. Especially from the old people(50+), their the best at judging hahaa. But, through it all you must realize that you live your life, no one else does. It is a constant struggle, but anyone with a strong will and humble character can get through it.
Me.. I have a pretty bad reputation at the moment. Probably will never go away in the obky (people tend to hold on to things for a while here). I made a mistake. There hasn't been a day go by in which I haven't thought of what I did wrong. I probably think about it more times a day than a nun prays in a month, and probably will continue to for a long long time. But, people don't know that. They can't see my hurt. Frankly, many don't care. Some days I wake up and look in the mirror, disgusted. Why me, why would I go and do something wrong, why my reputation, why.. You can ask 'why' a million times. To get over problems, you much search your character. Am I honestly a good person? Am I really sorry for what I did before and am ready to change? Once you answer questions like these, you will be able to truely have peace within..