I know a girl who is literally perfect. And when I say literally, I mean it in the most literal way it can be used. She is a cheerleader with a 4.0 and a perfect boyfriend and an amazing family and an awesome house and a perfect face and body (I could keep going, but you get the idea).  We all looked at her in awe. Overrated if you ask me, but I digress. I kept asking myself why some people just were blessed with everything, while I sat around on my ass being myself. I was never the person that others looked up to. I was the one that people laughed at. I went through life as a bum, watching more Netflix and eating more pizza than I should have. My love life has been not so great (as in nonexistent) and my study habits are borderline neurotic because I constantly feel like the dumbest person in the room. I strive to be amazing, yet I constantly feel like I'm failing. And I watch the people who have their life together and I can only envy them. Whatever sadness consumed me about my failures just heightens when I watch other people win in life.These perfect people exist everywhere, and unfortunately we all suffer while trying to become them.

But have you ever thought that maybe the “gift” imparted onto them is an illusion, and that they are just a reflection of who we want to be? Perhaps their sole purpose is to get inside of us (innuendo intended) and push us to find our own talent, when in reality our gift is our presence. We fight to make use of the space we take up in this world, but we don’t see the people looking at us in awe because we’ve made their lives better. Maybe what makes us extraordinary is the fact that we never cease to strive for perfection.

The pursuit of perfection is messy and hard and confusing, and many times it is just a huge blow to the ego. But its important. The demi gods we all admire never went on the journey to find themselves. They didn’t need to pursue anything, and they didn’t have an internal desire to be something. People call them lucky. I call them complacent. Life isn’t so superficial that we can clearly see who’s doing well and who’s not. We truly don’t know what it means to be happy, successful, or inspirational until we experience it ourselves. We hurt, sometimes so much that we forget the value of life and love. But that pain gives rise to passion, energy, and an undeniable urge to be exceptional.

People like us (I call us “normal people”) survive because we fight against self-depricating thoughts, and we thrive becuase we are constantly trying to be better in every way. Sometimes, when we let our guard down, we let others show us why we’re amazing. We begin to look in the mirror and see our beauty. We have conversations with scholars and discover our intelligence. We make our friends laugh so hard they’re crying. We even take a walk in the park one day, and as we appreciate perfection around us, we realize that we take ourselves for granted. We forget that we are also, in fact, pure perfection.

For those of you who have it all, I would like to congratulate you. I’m sure your life is so eventful and inspiring that I could probably learn from you. But maybe you could learn from me too.  My story kind of sucks, and it isn’t easy to listen to. And yet, my story is amazing. When I tell people about the internal battles I go through every day, they don’t see a flawless individual, they see themselves.

This is the part where I prove others, and even myself, wrong. I show people what bravery looks like, and what courage feels like. This isn’t my happiness story. This is the story of my struggles. This is the story of your comeback. It’s the story of our life. The best part about it? We decide how it ends. So all you perfect people can kiss my ass, I never liked you anyway.