You Are Special, But…

Apparently, when I was growing up it was all sunshine and rainbows. Kids were told they were special, they were loved, and they could be anything they wanted in the world. We were told this all the time and we believed it. The world was our oyster. We wanted to change the world and bringing people together.

Then, as we grew up. The world changed. We weren’t special but became entitled Millennials. We became the generation who “didn’t want to work hard” and “wanted everything handed to them.” Soon the term Millennials became synonymous with lazy pieces of shit. People used it the same way my grandmother would use the term “gypsy,” with hatred and disgust.

As Millennials, we become self-loathing trying their best to disassociate from that word. We hid from it. People didn’t want to be special or unique because it was now a “dirty” word. “You think you’re better than everyone?” “You think you should be treated differently than everyone else?”

Here’s the thing, kids. Those people, the haters, they want us to be mediocre. They want us to be average. They want to bring us to the median to feel better about themselves. They don’t want us to stand out because they might have to admit their own inadequacies, and that scares them. They want to keep us down so we don’t become better than they are. Those people want us to be losers, followers, and a “yes, men/women.”

My favorite example of this comes from the movie Fight Club. In the second half of the film, Tyler Durden starts up Project Mayhem and recruits followers. As they work, he repeatedly yells phrases like, “Listen up, maggots. You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You’re the same decaying organic matter as everything else.”

When I first watched this movie, it was real easy to get swept up into this sentiment. We ARE all the same, and we ARE all made of the same atoms. Maybe Tyler has a point. Maybe I’m not a beautiful and unique snowflake. Maybe, “I am the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world.”

The thing is Tyler Durden was building an army he could lead. He didn’t want anyone challenging his authority. He wanted his people to be complacent. If he told them they were pieces of shit enough times, they would believe it, and they would follow his lead without question. Why wouldn’t they? If they were the same decaying organic matter, crap of the world as everyone else why not just follow the leader? Tyler striped away everyone’s identity to make everyone the same and keep everyone down.

Recently, I’ve come to realize something. WE ARE SPECIAL! WE ARE A BEAUTIFUL AND UNIQUE SNOWFLAKE. We are one of a kind and there will not be anyone like us ever again. Even identical twins are never exactly the same. They may have similar thought patterns, and share similar life experiences, but they are never exactly the same. Remember, we have value. We have worth. We have something to offer the world, and we should be proud to do so as often as possible.

Okay! Now here’s the caveat. We may be special but that entitles us to absolute DICK! The universe owes us nothing. Life isn’t fair and us will have to go out there every day to earn it. As the Navy SEAL Commander, Jocko Wilink, says you have to “get after it!” If you want to be taken seriously you will have to show the world what you are made of by putting in the work.

It’s going to be hard. It’s not always going to be fun. There will be days we’ll want to play video games or binge tv all day. We will fall and not want to get back up. And just when we think we have the world all figured out, it will put us back on our asses.

Sounds exciting doesn’t? Sounds like a barrel full of monkeys? I know it doesn’t but anything in this life worth having will take time and effort. This is the lesson I only recently started to learn. There are no shortcuts, just better/smart ways of doing things. There aren’t any overnight successes.

My point is this. We are special but the world don’t owe us anything. We will have to show the world we’re special every day. We will fail, but those are just bumps in the road. Failure only define us if we let them. Let’s show the world what we can do. Let’s NEVER hold back! Now, “Get after it”!