How many times has someone told you to follow your dreams? To pursue the fire that burns deep inside you. To do what makes you happy. But, they think you need to be special to succeed. They say follow your dreams, but they have no faith you will succeed. They just want to pacify you, so they can get on with their own lives. Because let’s be real, you are just like millions of others. Unfortunately, that could be true, but you shouldn’t let it stop you. Make them rue the day they said you couldn’t make it. There are so many people out there who have accomplished their dreams because they didn’t let the other voices get in their head and they weren’t any different from me or you.

   Life is hard, and that’s a simple hard truth. Unfortunately for us, we have no heroes to come in and save us. If you want something to change, there is no suggestion box with someone waiting to help you and fix your problems. You have to be your own suggestion box. If you want to accomplish something, thinking about it is just one step. No one is gonna make the impact you wish to see, but you.

 The difference between those who accomplish their dreams and those who let the voices win is that one had the audacity to shut out those who told them they weren’t special. Maybe they aren’t special, or not in the way most believe someone is special. I don’t want to be the one to tell you that superheroes aren’t real, but they aren’t. Society has standards set too high for us, and these standards break us. They make us believe we can’t change anything. That we will just have to deal with the way things are and suffer, because, as society tells us, we need to have a tragic backstory and superpowers.

 If that were true then my 10 years of schooling would have been for nothing. Because I don’t have a tragic backstory or superpowers. I am not in any way special by society’s standards, I don’t stand out from the rest, and I don’t plan to stray from the college path, so I’ll never achieve my dream. But that’s not true, is it?

This is the real world. We aren’t superheroes who were struck by lightning. We are ordinary people. Some of us want to make an impact or have dreams we want to pursue. But we give up on this because someone tells us we aren’t special enough to reach it. So we don’t try. We settle to live ordinary lives. But there’s something you need to know. You don’t have powers. You may not stand out. But who said we need to be extraordinary to get there. We are all the same in the aspect of we want to be happy, we want to achieve our burning desire. We want to get to the place we feel we born to be.  

So why settle for the life everyone else lives? The life of misery, resentment, and regret. Don’t wait for someone to say you are worthy of this dream. You don’t need approval. You don’t need superpowers. Be your own hero. Make the impact you want. Tell the voices, the ones who have no faith, that they’ll rue the day they said you weren’t special.

  Maybe we don’t have powers, and maybe there are people out there with the same dream. But who really cares? There are moments in your life it is important to be realistic and think that you might not get that job, but you should never quit before you have even begun.

 Recently I was told I was like millions of others. That I’m not special. It hurt, and it will always hurt when you hear that, especially from the people closest to you. The thing you must always remember is that you are special. Sure there are others like you, but they aren’t you. You have a dream. A passion. Follow it. Don’t wait for someone else to do it. Because there are no heroes with tragic backstories and super speed coming to do this for you. BE YOUR OWN HERO. Defeat your metaphorical villains, and accomplish your dreams. Make yourself happy.

BE YOUR OWN HERO!