Some days, I wake up and look in the mirror,
In fact we all do.
And do you know at who?
At the person we hate most in this world,
Because society had told us to.
To criticize every bruise, every scar, every cut and every wrinkle setting us apart from what we have been told is the “norm”
And, staring into that mirror you ask, “how can I change, become better, fit into this so called “norm”
Why? Here’s why:
I get payed less than you just because I have long hair, wear dresses, and like the colour pink while you’re all manly.
You are left alone in the hallways at lunch, ignored by the all the girls just because you don’t speak English, and I’ve grown up with that language.
I get pointed at and laughed at in the change room just because my hips are curved a different way than yours.
You work at a gas station while I go to university just because I have more change in my pockets.
I am seen of less worth than you just because my skin is brown and yours is white.
You are less Canadian than me just because you wear a scarf over your head and my hair can be seen.
I may not be allowed into Mr. Trump’s country just because I pray in a mosque, and you in church.
You have lost all connections with your family just because you love a girl and I love a guy.
I am called a “nerd” by all my friends just because I like to read and you like to play soccer.
You can’t even go to school just because you move around in a wheelchair and me on my two legs.
My friends, do you want to know a secret?
One that every hater, extremist, terrorist, sexist and racist has somehow unknowingly forgotten
Amidst their own self-worth, loathe, despise and aversion.
Well, let me tell you something, those difference between me and my neighbour, me and my friend, me and my teacher, me and the mailman. They are all ok. They’re more than alright.
Because you are you,
And, I, well, I am me.
It’s crazy how we dispute against difference but have never taken a single second to think otherwise…
What if everyone were exactly the same?
Perfect A student’s, speaking only one language, exact same shades of skin,
Prayed to the same God, wore the same outfit every single day, and always carried the same amount of change in our pockets.
Would that be a perfect world? Would we live in harmony?
Bored out of minds, with nothing more to learn or do
The answer is simple, NO.
Human beings were not constructed to be identical robots
We are each shaped into our own snowflake, delicate, rare and fragile in detail, in pattern
With no two combinations of DNA, chromosomes or genes exactly alike.
And if we accept that reality, then instead of warring, bombing, nuking, expelling and building walls, then we will be able to put our minds together for great missions,
Living side by side as neighbours on this beautiful planet we call earth,
In one great big circle with our arms linked and our hearts virtually connected.
So I say to you today, when you wake up tomorrow,
Look in that glass mirror!
Not at the person you hate, but rather who you love most in this world.
That amazing, incredible, extraordinary human being,
Who has a story behind them, created day by day, chapter by chapter,
With strengths, weaknesses, passions, uniqueness, and differences from the norm, YOURSELF!
So to answer your question – never, ever change who you are.