What Makes You Different, Also Makes You Special

We need to understand that our differences serve as an example to people, and that they help us improve. In the same way, we can progress thanks to those of others.

What is different makes you unique, and therefore special. What would our world be like if we were just clones of each other without being different?

The same thoughts, the same attitudes and the same bodies would be the components of an empty society, in which spontaneity, magic and creativity would have no place.

It is possible that you came into the world with an unharmful face, with freckles, with a very pronounced nose or with plump thighs.

You may have always been thin, or on the contrary you cannot get rid of the few extra pounds that you inherited from your parents, since your childhood.

Some people think that these characteristics make them different from others, but this is not quite so.

What makes us different and unique is the way we take on these particularities. This is what makes our strength and our greatness.

Being different should not be a sign of exclusion. In the rest of this article, we invite you to reflect on this subject.

When not being in the mold makes all the difference

Most teens all try to be alike, in order to be like their classmates.

They dress the same, listen to the same music, admire the same artists, etc.

On some occasions, they end up blending into the mold so much that it is difficult to tell them apart.

They feel this need to be part of a whole, and not to be noticed. Unfortunately, this has many negative consequences:

• Be determined by its membership in the group.
• Feeling anxiety and suffering when one fails to achieve the same goals as others, or when one is in different aesthetic and physical patterns.
• Thinking that being different is synonymous with strangeness, weirdness, and therefore exclusion.

This way of seeing things is not healthy, neither physically nor emotionally.

This often generates self-esteem issues for many teenagers, especially in an age when “being trendy” is so important.

How to be different?

However, it is necessary to maintain a certain balance:

• Being good with yourself is the number one value we should aspire to.
• Accepting our way of being, whether physically or mentally, still involves staying within certain health standards.
  You have to be good inside, as well as outside.
• No one, not even society and its fashions, has the right to tell us that being different is wrong.

Those who understand beauty tell us that true attraction is generated by a detail that breaks a person’s harmony.

Very marked cheekbones, a slightly hooked nose, messy teeth, or wide hips, mark a difference from the standards of beauty, and make us unique.

Being different gives character and makes us who we are. 

To be different in a world that sinks into the void of homogeneity

What good can it be for us all to be the same? One of our goals, as a person, is of course to leave a mark.

We must mark those around us, and be examples for everyone and for society itself.

We must be able to bring new ideas, which will enrich us to move forward.

• The one who is able to go beyond what he dreams of and the molds imposed by society, develops personal strategies which make him stand out from the crowd, which make him more courageous and which make him an example.

A lot of times it’s not easy to be different. When we talk about being different, we’re not just referring to having a few extra pounds.

• He who thinks in an alternative way is also different.
• Whoever does things in an unusual way is categorized as different.
• Dressing in an original way, keeping certain traditions, always being sincere, or wanting things for your children that are different from those of other parents, can lead others to point the finger at us.

The critics

We must never allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by these criticisms, nor should we feel touched.

If we convince ourselves that being different is wrong, we lose all of our individuality.

• Never lose your ability to think critically, and to go beyond the path that has been laid out for you.
• Try to have a positive impact on every day of your life.
  If you can do this, you will end up with small victories, which will make you feel much better about yourself.
• Embrace your limits, understand them and face them.
  Understand that the only limits there are are in our mind, and that if we are able to change our thoughts, our attitude to life will change as well.

Conclusions

To be different, to know that you are different, is a great opportunity.

It allows us to learn a lot from ourselves, and it is something that few people are capable of.

It pays to put this mentality into practice on a daily basis, to accept ourselves a little more every day. We must also try to be happy in everything we do.

The one who does not accept himself and who wishes to conform to everything that society imposes on him, is the authentic banished, the authentic different.