We don’t all have to be the CEO of the company.

We don’t all have to drive a BMW.

We don’t all have to marry the prom king.

We don’t all have to be rich.

We don’t all have to be famous.

We don’t all have to be rock stars.

We don’t all have to shoot heroin.

We don’t all have to have brilliant children.

We don’t all have to be star running backs.

We don’t all have to win the Nobel prize for literature.

It’s just that, if I watch any sort of television, or read a magazine, or turn on the internet, life is clearly all or nothing. Society only cares about the one percent of one percent who rise to levels that most human beings are never meant to reach. Society also convinces us that each and every one of us is capable of being in that tiny percentage, that in fact it is our duty to be in that tiny percentage. Is it any wonder, then, that so many people are so jacked up?

We do have to learn to love ourselves.

We do have to learn to love the others in our lives, even if they are different than us.

We do have to learn to love our own lives, even when the rent is overdue and there’s no groceries in the fridge and we just got fired from our jobs.

We do have to learn what we do well.

We do have to learn to take pride in ourselves, even if we’re never going to do any of the things mentioned above.

Those things are hard enough.