Growing up, I always wanted to be someone else. Whether it was the bulked-up action stars I saw on TV, the athletic superstars on Packer Sundays, or the cool older kids at school, all I knew for sure was that Will Carroll wasn't the person to be.

Sound familiar? It's a struggle as old as childhood itself- everybody wants to be someone else, someone they view as being almost superhuman. Someone that, in their eyes, can do no wrong, and has never felt insecure, or lonely, or unsure of the future and themselves. But here's the great thing about people... no matter what you may think, they're just people. As Steve Jobs put it, "Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life." You'll never be anyone else, no matter how hard you try. And no one will be -- can be -- you.

A million people have preached the "be yourself" mantra in a million different ways, but I'd like to take it a step further, and assert that you have no right not to be yourself. The world is too complex for any two people to be identical, and I believe that every person offers a unique and important personality, and the world wouldn't be complete without each and every single one of us. For worse or for better, we're here, and this life is ours for the taking. Make your life your own.

All this talk is well and good, but it's a thousand times harder to be confident in your own skin in public, where everyone is watching you. Trust me, I know. But you can't let that stop you -- I think the writers of "Game of Thrones" worded it best: "Never forget who you are... the rest of the world will not. Wear it like armor, and it can never be used to hurt you." The only power people have over you is the power you give them. If you're truly happy and confident in the person you are, nobody can take that away from you.

So please, be yourself. No matter what you may think of yourself, or what others have made you believe, you're just as good as everyone else. No worse, no better. You're perfectly imperfect, just like the other seven billion of us. And, as Mr. Rodgers said, "There's no person in the whole world like you, and I like you just the way you are."