All our life, we are told to be brave. As little children, wrapped in the warm cocoons of love and ignorance before bed and listening to the brave and heroic stories of the prince who saves the princess against all odds. We are told to be ourselves as the little boy reaches for the doll that is quickly snatched up by authority and replaced with a small car. As the girl stares, not in admiration of the princess, but the prince. She watches commercials, craving a new car that she could make come to life.
Elementary school starts. Shaking in fear, we cry to our parents; wondering if we could ever make friends. The comforting words fall form our parent's mouth, "Just be you. Just a be you. Just be you." As we take one shaky step at a time, we think over and over and over agin, "Just be you. Just be you. Just be you." We go home, once again crying. When that look down at you with pity in their eyes asking why, you cry even harder. You cry about a boy yelling at you just for saying hello and being scolded by your teacher for having the "wrong opinion". You cry because you were you and we're still judged.
Middle school and your stuck in the same, never ending void that is your false smile and seemingly real laugh. How do your "friends" know you're fake if they've never seen you real? Middle school blurs by. The only thoughts rushing through your mind are your cues to laugh.
High school and the dreams start; but are they really dreams? No. They are memories. Although you can't place a date, the dreams feel so real. It feels as if your brain is trying to burst out of your skull and swan dive into that hole in your chest that has felt empty since before you can remember. Then you wake up, the dram still ringing in your mind. "Be yourself" says your parent. "Just be you".
How can we be ourselves in a world where being unique is normal but being "normal" means not being unique? How can we walk with confidence when every step we take comes with a look of disapproval? Ever since we first heard the story of the underdog prince who live happily ever after, we have been told that we can make a difference, that we can be the change we with to see in the world. But how can we when every time we turn around to examine our surroundings, chains wrap tighter around our already damaged wrists and pull and pull and pull and pull until we are brought to our knees. Still, we try to run as ropes are tightened around our ankles long after they have already begun to dig into our skin. We have two options: die, or live to fight another day. As we sink back into the shadows, we have something new. We have a spark of rebellion that breaks into a flame of rage that grows and grows until it becomes a wild fire of change that exposes some of the injustices and suffering surrounding us. Instead of pouring lighter fluid on justice, they poor water and stomp on it with a great foot until nothing is left except except embers. In our hears however, this is the day you break free.
Their words cut like knives so you cut away the ropes at your ankles. Those looks of disapproval that hurt even more are strong enough to free your wrists. Then, you run.
Oh, how you run!
You run and run and run further and further away from the lanes of people all following the short, straight, and cliché path. No one seems to notice as you quietly run faster and faster and faster until you are finally in the perfect position to rescue the princess, even if you have to do it alone.
Alone.
A fear that no one lives without. Here is a secret to life however: Just when you think you are truly alone, you are wrapped tightly in a warm embrace of new found friendship. You are surrounded by hundreds, maybe even thousands of people, from the girl with her race car, to the boy with his doll, and everyone in between.
Alone. You may not have much power, but no one is ever truly alone. For we are all together, united by the flame growing brighter and brighter in all of our chests until they all unite, setting the world on fire to emerge like a phenix.
No matter what anyone says, you matter, you can change the world!
After all, isn't that why we're all here?