You're special... Just like everyone else

Who here has never been told they were special?

Go on, raise your hands.

Not even by your teacher mom/mum or friends?

I thought so.

I remember when my teacher, fed up of my incessant "but....WHY"s and my almost hyperactive eagerness to get my work done, told me how 'special' I was.

And even now, the sarcastic 'You're just special' is used by my friends.

Being special, or people scared of being a sheep, is a well-known cliche in books and movies. Everyone wants to be famous. Everyone wants to be remembered. It's the basic fears of humanity, surfacing in small children around the age of six or seven (If you read an excellent short story called 'Games at Twilight', you'll know what the heck I'm on about).

And, of course, almost every teenage girl (and probably more than a few boys too, I just aren't on that close terms with many of them :P ) think that;

The world is against them,

They are going through ____(insert here) completely alone and non-one has ever experienced it before,

and that their feelings (of first love, turmoil etc.) and thoughts are unique.

Now, I know that's a pretty harsh assessment, and I hope you'll forgive me, but I myself have been guilty of 2/3 sins at some time or other.

Now, to cut the ****,

My closest friend of ten years is shutting me out at the moment, because she is going through 'some issues'. She's told quite a few people what these issues are, but is excluding me because "You won't sympathise; This will never happen to you".

It isn't about my asexuality, and apart from it being because I have -5 eyesight or am around hobbit-height, there's nothing that differentiates us. And yes, you've guessed it, this unique thing that has happened to her is an emotion/thought.*

I'm sure that when she is ready, she will tell all, but what I find odd is that despite assurances that not to burst her bubble, she isn't that different from me, and isn't that unique, she still thinks that she is alone in what she's feeling, which means that I worry for her and feel really frustrated at the same time.

It must have had something to do with the many, many (rather than one) teachers telling her that she was special :P

Peace out.