Maria Shriver's "Just Who Will You Be?"

Inspired by a speech she gave to graduating High School seniors, Maria Shriver penned her latest book around the idea of measuring your success not in what do you but rather in who you are as a person.

The mini-book is an easy read.  Perfect for my busy lifestyle where I was able to start and finish the book in one session while standing up in my kitchen.  She may have written the original speech to a group of eighteen year olds who probably have no clue the journey they are about to embark on to get to know themselves and group up; however, the message can resound with us all, young and old.

In Shirver's heartfelt introduction, she candidly writes about how she was ask to resign from her job at NBC when her husband, The Terminator, decided to run (and was later elected) for Governor of California.  Even when spinning in humor to her tale of when her son referred to her as "just a housewife", it was clear that she was hurt and confused to how she went from an award winning reporter to just a mom and wife -- even if being the wife meant being the First Lady of California.  There were moments in the book where I felt her "soul searching" was a little over the top.  Afterall, if someone like Maria Shriver can't figure out a way to change the world, then what hope do the rest of us have to make a difference? 

Shriver reprints the speech she made for the graduating class - bad rhyming and all.  And while I did cringe a little at the atrocity of the poem, I could see through that to the real message.  We are all a work in progress.  We are not defined by our work or our children or what we are in relation to others.  We are defined by who we are.  What we bring to this world.  Our legacy is not in how many things we can afford but in what we give of ourselves to the world.

Personally, I found it to be a lovely little book, a fast read, and an important message.  You won't find any answers to the meaning of life in reading Just Who Will You Be?, but you may find inspiration to change yourself for the better.