I remember when I was very young, I had this undying urge to fit in with the other girls around me. I was dead set on it, only that would do.

My mom took me backpack shopping when I was going to kindergarten, and I threw a fit when she told me to get a smaller version of a backpack rather than the full one. All the other kids would have full-sized backpacks, and I would be the odd one out.

That just wouldn’t do.

But my mom told me to get over it, a backpack is a backpack and they literally do the same thing. She explained the size difference is because kindergarteners have less to carry than the “big kids.”

But, my God, I was PISSED. I was petrified that I was going to be different than the other girls in my class. Alas, I somehow survived kindergarten with my slightly smaller backpack with no significant damage done to my life or my friendships.

In the first grade, I cried after my dad dropped me off at school. I love my dad, and I did not want to leave him. I hid over by the cubbies in my classroom and cried so that no one would see it. But someone did, and I never lived it down.

I tried to dress like all the other kids, but my sister’s hand-me-downs were my options and kids poked at this, too. When I performed in our talent show, kids thought that a ballet performance to “Hedwig’s Theme” from Harry Potter was stupid. It hurt.

As I went about life and tried to figure out what I was supposed to do, I became more self-aware of the fact that I was not meant to fit in.

I was the girl who wanted to be a scientist that studied how fire reacted in space. I was the girl who loved to play soccer and get down and dirty before going directly to ballet class. I had no problem with being a know-it-all. I took pride in my intelligence.

Behind all of this was my mom, who never failed to push me to be exactly who I was. From a young age, she would tell me that I could be anything I wanted, that nothing anyone could say would change who I was inside, and that if I have a dream, I should chase it.

She followed me when I toured engineering colleges because Biomedical Engineering was my passion. She then followed me through tours when Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience was my passion. And she followed me when I finally figured out that Cleveland State University was my home and Nursing was my passion.

I look back now at how terrified I was because I thought I didn’t fit in with the other girls. I thought that since I didn’t wear makeup every day and that my hair wasn’t done that I would be a failure in life.

In hindsight, I dedicated more of my time to my studies and it got me pretty far in life.

We are not all made to fit in. Some of us will blossom in academics. Some of us will blossom in athletics. Some of us will blossom in common knowledge. Some of us will blossom in the knowledge of trades and how to do them. Some of us will blossom into the people that we have always followed, and that’s okay.

I know there are thousands of girls like me out there that will probably never fit in.

Just know that it’s okay! It’s much more fun to be yourself and love who you are than putting on a mask and pretending that you’re someone you don’t know.

So what if you don’t fit in? Being original and being who you are meant to be is much more genuine than anything society tells you to be.