I must confess; I’m a little different. I blame it all on my two older brothers who imposed their warped sense of humor on me. Well, come to think of it, my dad didn’t help either—teaching us how to hypnotize turkeys and making homemade hovercrafts, gyrocopters and potato launchers.

Okay, I guess it’s in my blood. That being said, I know there can’t possibly be anyone just like me. The people and circumstances that went into making me who I am can never be duplicated. I am unique.

Even as different as I think and know I am (and I’m okay with who I am), I realize I will be compared.

Anyone who has stepped out and displayed their talents on a platform can tell you that. The comparison of others is not really a struggle for us. The struggle begins when we start to believe it and think we’re not good enough because we’re not like someone else.

One of the most unlovely, or unloving, things we can do to ourselves is compare. You’re not a carbon copy, nor were you meant to function in that way. Our uniqueness is part of what strengthens our unity.

We’re like a puzzle that cannot be completed without each individual piece—not identical pieces fighting for the same place in the puzzle.