We are all the same.

Listen (on the playlist below):

Let Me Be Myself-3 Doors Down

One Day-Matisyahu

Beauty in the World-Macy Gray

We are all the same. We all live, breathe, bleed and break. We all have nights where we cry ourselves to sleep and mornings where we push the snooze button one more time than we should because we just don't want to get up. We all lose our tempers, we all lose our minds and we all lose sight of what's important. We are all the same.

So why is it that so many people focus on what makes us different as though different is a bad thing? Because it's not. The people we fall in love with, the things we believe in, whether or not they make band-aids that match our skin tone? None of those differences change that we are all the same-they don't change the fact that we are all people. People who struggle sometimes just to get through the day. People who look back on the past and think, 'Where did the time go?' People who experience hate and love, heartache and bliss, pain and pleasure. We're all just people, living life day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute. We're all trying to live instead of merely just being alive. Instead of just existing.

But it can be really difficult to do anything but exist when you are being told that your existence-who you are-is wrong. It can be really difficult to hold your head high, throw your shoulders back and walk tall. It can be really difficult not to let that little shadow of doubt creep into your mind and leave you asking yourself, 'Am I doing something wrong? Am I wrong?'

Maybe this doesn't seem like a big deal. Maybe for you second-guessing yourself is helpful and good. But it's not helpful and good for me. No, for me, self-doubt is downright destructive. Self-doubt can leave me in a slump for days, weeks, sometimes even months. But in moments of clarity, in moments like this one, where there is no shadow of doubt, no questions, no wonder, I know that who I am-even with all of my flaws-is not wrong. That I am fine just the way I am. And that everyone else on this planet is fine just the way that they are. No matter who they love, what they believe in or whether they can walk to CVS and get a band-aid that matches their skin tone. Because we all live, we all breathe, we all bleed and we all break. We are all the same.