My brother asked me today why I am a feminist. Though his logic was slightly flawed, he drilled and questioned me as to why I cared so much about something that someone else could easily and more effectively do.
Though I did not agree with his logic, he hit home with something that I fear. Sometimes I feel I have nothing to say. Nothing real to contribute to this world. Nothing to say that hasn't already been said before. Literature proves that. The more you read, the more you realize the same questions and ideas keep reoccurring. Even scarier is when I sometimes feel like I will die without making any true difference.
Do you ever feel that way? Like an insignificant tiny ant in a world of things that are smarter, bigger and better than you?
I'm here to tell you that you and I MATTER, and so does what we have to say.
1. You know different people than everyone else.
This makes your opinion valuable. Perhaps there is someone that your ideas or thoughts will reach among your own group of family, peers etc. You have something to offer that no one else does. Connections. You know a certain set of people that no one else can lay claim to, and that makes it important for you to relay your opinions and gives you a platform to contribute.
2. Your opinion is different because of your background.
Me? I'm a Dominican/American/Canadian hybrid pastor's kid with ancestry ranging from Holland to the Canary Islands. I play and teach violin, love to swim, love to write and moved from New Hampshire to Washington on my own last year. Sure, those are tiny pieces into my story, but it is a story that no one else can lay claim to. Your story is your own, and therefore, your past experiences will shape how you perceive certain things. And certainly, perhaps what you are saying has been said before, but no one will ever say it or think it quite like you do.
3. You have different goals than everyone else.
Maybe there is more than one English major in the world, but no one is going to marry the same man as I do, accomplish the same goals as I do, work at the same vocations as I do, have the same children I do, believe the same things I do. That is simply a fact of life. Therefore, your goals will have something to do with what you contribute as well. If you are reaching for a certain thing in your future, it will definitely have an impact on what you think, say and believe now.
I may not be Mark Zuckerberg. I may not be Maya Angelou. I may not be Winston Churchill. I may not be anything extraordinary enough for people to remember me in the history books. And remember, as Hazel Grace Lancaster says, "Oblivion is inevitable." Perhaps it is a pride issue much like the one Augustus Waters sported in John Green's "The Fault In Our Stars".
Maybe that is why I am so afraid I do not have something to contribute. I feel like I must make a significant mark on the world with my writing and my voice. And yet, there is a way to do that -- through my past experiences, my goals for the future and the tiny community I have around me to impact. Perhaps no more than 20 people will read this, and maybe even less will share it. But my ideas, my words and my thoughts are worth something. I am sharing them with you today -- not a huge act. But an important one nonetheless.
Maybe you and I won't make it to the history books for brilliant ideas (well, maybe you will), but we have the opportunity to change something in the here and now, because our experience is unique. Which makes US unique.
