"You Are Not Special" - Drasle Tome Volume III

Psssssst, hey you....yeah YOU, the person reading this, I feel I need to let you in on a little secret, feel free to tell whoever else you want though. *Ahem* I'll just give it to you straight: You. Are. Not. Special. No, I'm not saying this to just kick you in your ego and make you feel unimportant, I'm saying it for your own damn good. Stop living your life believing your soooo daggone important, and you'll be a lot happier.  Why is that? Well first of all, nothing you're doing is anything new. Oh, you're pretty? You have a nice body? You have money?  You have blah, blah, blah? So do 8 million other people, Congratulations! All the stuff your posting on the Facebooks and Instagrams trying to get likes from complete strangers, just stop, no one actually cares, they are just as approval-seeking as you are.

But wait, you say came up with some new idea like Ikea or sliced bread!  What you really mean is all you did as improve upon something someone else already created.  There is nothing truly new under the sun anymore, it's the same things as always in a flashier, convenience store package.  Now if you find a cure for Cancer, I'll concede you're special, but until then, let's get back to the subject at hand. 

At an early age most of us are told we are special and important, there's actually nothing wrong with that, that's what good parents and role-models should be doing, rather than the opposite.  The problem is no one ever really tells us what that is supposed to mean in a practical sense.  So from this most of us develop an ambitious desire to be "great": do grandiose things, change the world, matter to lots and lots of people.  Now there are parents who do elaborate more and constantly tell their kids they are special when they notice, for example, athletic or singing talent at an early age and then put pressure on them to succeed in these fields. Of course the downside to this is shame and failure,  so that's totally healthy for kids and their molding.

The point is this, once we become adults, everyone wants to be a millionaire. But if everyone was a millionaire, it wouldn't mean anything anymore, it would be the equivalent of being a thousandaire.  So from this realization comes the "dog eat dog" mentality that we will do whatever it takes to achieve what we want to achieve because we know the space at the top is limited and vacancies don't come often.   All this creates is very unfulfilling lives for everyone involved because if you're not using, you're being used.  We all can't be special, to reach this exclusive status, there will always be someone else who is smarter, better looking, has more money, etc.  So at the end of the day, those at the top aren't anymore fulfilled than those at the bottom.

It sounds all very depressing I know, but there is hope!  We all need to re-learn what it means to be special, because you know what?  You are unique, there is absolutely no one else exactly like you, but that doesn't make you better than anyone else, because no else is like anyone else either.  So embrace this with grace, not arrogance.  And instead of focusing on trying to be deemed magnificent and great in the eyes of the world, focus on being magnificent and great to those closest to you: your family, your friends,your co-workers.  And stop with celebrity worship and putting other humans on a pedestal, because they are simply skin, blood, and bones; just like you.  We get so caught up in trying to "matter" we forget what really matters.  If you're focused on doing things for admiration and praise, you're already doing them for the wrong reasons and you should go back and re-evaluate yourself.  Imagine what your world would be like if everyone took this approach, all the jealousy, bitterness, isolation, all these feelings would no longer have relevance because now there is no one to look up to, or down upon. 

Growing up I always felt I was different than other people and wanted to be special, but you know what I eventually realized, the only life I was living was my own so I really didn't have an accurate gauge for this.  The more I lived and the more I learned, the more I realized that my basic composotion is really not that different than anyone else, for better and for worse.  I have desires, insecurities, strengths, and weaknesses; no one is perfect nor has the perfect life, so the only thing that truly makes me different is the choices I make and how I treat people. So instead of wasting our lives trying to be viewed as special in the eyes' of others, we should spend a lot more time trying to do special things for others.