When I was growing up I heard, "You are one of a kind!" "You can be anything you want!" Those and any number of other cliches people tell children to get them to feel special and think that the world is their oyster (whatever the fuck that means). As an adult I hear, well not so much hear as just understand that you are not actually one in a million, you are one in millions and there are too damn many yous out there for anyone to consider you special.
Have you ever been good at something? That thing that everyone you know looks at you and goes, "Damn that's some good shit right there." Maybe you're thinking that you got the awesome on you and so you start to do the one thing that will strip that away by looking for other people that are just as good, if not way better at it than you.
I am pretty damn good with a crochet hook. Yeah, it's not earth shaking talent or anything but I can make some mighty fine thingamajigs with yarn. Every time I start to think I am special, I find someone just a little more special than me on the world wide webernet. There's always that one asshole that makes what you do look like it was done by a person without thumbs. If the internet didn't exist, I would never know about this person. I could go on living my life always thinking I am an awesome individual because in all honesty I've been to a lot of places with my yarn and haven't run into that many other people that can do what I can do with it. Most people don't dilly dally with yarn so they think I'm mighty interesting and give me great compliments about my work or tell me stories about how their Granny was just as bad ass or even better than me. That's okay though because it means I am just as cool as someone's Granny AND that my grand-kids are going to brag about their groovy grandma one day, double whammy. It's also okay because no one carries around pictures of that sweet ass blanket their Gran made them so I can't even honestly compare the work.
That pretty much applies to any talent. Chances are you are not surrounded by people that are all excellent at the same thing in your everyday life. BUT on the internet, they are everywhere. Think you got writing skills, yeah so does everyone else. Are you a metal smithin' sonofabitch, well you aren't the only one. Pretty good at being a mom to four kids? Someone else does crafts with and reads to their six kids everyday while never yelling. Can you do ten things at once? There's someone out there that can do twelve. There are sooo many yous out there. They are on facebook, twitter, etsy, special interest forums, google searches... EVERYWHERE you look there is another you.
We are all searching for individuality in everything from our cell phone covers to our quippy statuses and blogs to whatever sorcery can be produced with our hands but with one quick google search it's easy to see that individuality is completely lost on the internet. We aren't special or one of a kind and that is really damn sad. I feel special in real life, not special like "yeah look at me bitches" but in that way that makes me feel good and like I have something to provide.
What's person to do in order to be the you-iest you possible? I do not have the answer for that besides get the hell off of the internet, throw away the smart phone and start making your own clothes. Before you say "whoa bitch" know that I'm not going to do that either. I'll probably just forget about the fact that there are so many of me out there for a while because deep down I know that when I need to be taken down a notch, that me that's better is only a search away.
