Note of warning: this article contains minor spoilers for "My Hero Academia."

80 percent of the world's population has powers called "Quirks," and you're one of them! You've just been accepted into the renowned Hero course of the U.A. High School. You're on your way to becoming a hero!

Imagine being a student in class 1-A with Shoto Todoroki. He's smart and confident. He's the very definition of the "strong, silent type." His Quirk is insanely powerful, and dad is the second-highest ranked superhero in the world! How can you possibly compare? If only...

Stop that.

That hero worship, however ironic, is nothing but detrimental to yourself and to Shoto.

Now, don't get me wrong, my dear Hero course student. Shoto is pretty awesome. I know that. You know that. As soon as you start seeing him as more of a flawless being than a fellow human, then you've already lost.

He's not flawless. He makes mistakes, like when he failed to consider his partner's plan during his final exam and almost failed because of it. He actually does have emotions, in case you couldn't tell from that GIF up there. And even he's not confident all the time, which is part of the reason why he stopped trying and gave up at the last second during his final match at the Sports Festival.

He's human, just like you. And when think of him as nothing but an unstoppable force of nature, you're dehumanizing him and only setting yourself up for a letdown. Raina Naim says it best in her article:

"We cannot fall in love with the idea we had of someone and then get disappointed when they don't become the person we assumed they were."

Look at him. Come on. In that moment right there, he wasn't some infallible legend. He's just a 15-year-old kid, who's had the foundation of his convictions shaken to the point where he deactivates his Quirk and lets himself get beaten in a fight.

Please don't let yourself isolate him in admiring his better qualities, because then you'll both be miserable.

Then, there's also the fact you putting him on this pedestal means you're seeing him as higher than you, better than you. If you're thinking, "Well, yeah, because he is," then I invite you to accept a gentle slap in the face from me.

Shoto is awesome, yes, but don't let your acknowledgment of his Quirk overshadow your own self-confidence. You got into that Hero Course for a reason. Not out of luck, but out of skill; your skill. Your Quirk is unique to you, and only you have the power to do great with it. When you let yourself start believing that you'll never live up to unrealistic standards, you'll just get burned out.

Being around people who seem like they're constantly one-upping you is hard. Trust me, I know. I'm in the magnet program at my school, which means I'm constantly surrounded by fellow high-achievers every day. I used to constantly compare myself to my class's valedictorian and salutatorian, hating that I wasn't as smart as them and putting myself down whenever I failed at something. Heck, I'm still guilty of comparing myself to them from time to time.

Then, I actually became friends with one of them, and I realized what cool guy he is. More importantly, I no longer saw him as some pinnacle of academic perfection. I saw him for the amazing person he is, with fears and hopes and stress-induced breakdowns and all. He happens to excel at some of my weaker subjects because he genuinely enjoys them; but instead of sneering or getting jealous, I just let myself be happy about how much he cares about his favorite topics. (It's pretty endearing seeing him get excited about things.)

If you find yourself falling into that trap of putting others on pedestals, that's when you take a step back. You look at yourself, and you look at all the things you've accomplished; even the little things. Maybe you won an award. Maybe you wrote a fanfic. Maybe you made the sports team, or maybe, you made a friend. If you feel like you haven't accomplished anything in your life, that just means there's something really cool that you're not giving yourself enough credit for. And if that "untouchable person" is doing what you aspire to do, well, that just means you have to put that much more faith in yourself to improve your own skills.

Essentially, I'm asking you to lower that pedestal you put Shoto on, or whoever that person in your life is that you can't seem to catch up to. Stand on level ground with them, and stop looking at them like they're the epitome of everything that you should be. Here's a wild thought; try becoming friends with them, like Izuku did with Shoto! You'll be amazed at what you discover.

Those people will have their skill sets, sure. But, I guarantee you that there are things that you can do that no one else can, not even Shoto Todoroki.