I wanna be like you.

Not too long ago I had a little girl tell me that she wanted to be just like me.

I know what my reaction should have been, "Aww, how sweet, thank you." or something along those lines...but honestly my first thought was "Why?". Why in the world would anyone want to be like me, for a long time I didn't even want to be like me. It's funny, I'm almost positive that at some point in time we all want to be like someone else; either because we seem inferior or because they seem superior. I once wanted to be all sorts of people, for all different reasons. Yet, now I find I'm proud of who I am and who I will become, and I know who I once was and where I've come from. So I fail to see why anyone would ever want to be like me. There already is a me, a me that's just like me.

So when that little girl told me she wanted to be just like me, I asked her why... "Why be like me if you could be like you?"

Someone new, someone the world has never seen before, someone who can do incredible things. Trying to be like someone else is like trying to be normal. I've spent most of my life now being abnormal, and I've found its people who are different who make a difference. I hope that one day that little girl is proud to be different and I hope she makes a difference. I hope that anyone who's ever wanted to be someone becomes the someone that they were all along.

Normal isn't something to aspire to, it's something to get away from.