One of the hardest things I’ve had to learn was that everyone’s journey is different, and that’s okay. As the youngest of four, I struggled with understanding the difference between looking up to my sisters and trying to be them. I compared my journey to theirs and thought that if my road didn’t look exactly like theirs then I was a failure. I had to get good grades like they did, I had to be good at sports like they were, I had to be as popular as they were or else I wasn’t anyone of worth. I compared my abilities, talents, and personality to those of my sisters and seemed to always come up short. I thought this was the truth, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. It wasn’t until I read a quote in a book that I started to understand that I didn’t need or even want to be exactly like my sisters because that just wasn’t who I was. The quote in question was from the Bhagavad Gita and it said, “It is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else’s life with perfection.” 

After reading that, I couldn’t stop thinking about how I was living an imitation of my sisters because I was scared of being myself, being different. I was scared that if my journey didn’t look like my sisters’ then I was a failure. I finally realized that I am my own amazing person with my own amazing journey. My failures and successes don’t look the same as any of my sisters and theirs don’t look the same as mine, but we still have our own failures and successes. When I stopped comparing my journey with theirs, I began to enjoy my life more. Don’t be like me. Don’t waste your time trying to be someone else. Be who you are with all your heart and enjoy this life God has blessed you with.