Kids want acceptance from their peers, but in two different, opposing ways: They want to be like everyone else and they want to be different from everyone else. So the question is: How do you reconcile these opposing longings?
The essential problems remain the same... The kids I write about are asking for the same things I wanted. They want two contradictory things. They want to be the same as everyone else, and they want to be different from everyone else. They want acceptance for both.
Everyone is different, and so I don't want to repeat anyone else's career. I want to do mine.
I just want to sound different than everyone else. I don't care if it sounds bad. I just want people to be like, 'Yo, that dude Benny was different.' Even if it sounds awful, at least they can't say, 'Oh well, I've heard that before.'
People want to be in their own fashion tribes, so they want to wear the same clothes to be connected to everyone else in that tribe. But they want to be different from other tribes.
Not being like everyone else is a great thing, but when you're in elementary school, you want people to like you, and kids that age can be so closed-minded. I mean, I went to a little Catholic school in the San Fernando Valley! My life was so different from the other kids'.
Only you pick that crab. Nobody else take it. I already know this. Everyone else want best quality. You thinking different.
But you're almost eighteen. You're old enough. Everyone else is doing it. And next year someone is going to say to someone else 'but you're only sixteen, everyone else is doing it' Or one day someone will tell your daughter that she's only thirteen and everyone else is doing it. I don't want to do it because everyone else is doing it.
I think it's good to do your own thing and want to be different, and not look like everyone else.
I guess what I'd like to say is that people in Sierra Leone are human beings, just like Americans. They want to send their kids to school; they want to live in peace; they want to have their basic rights of life just like everyone else. I think we all owe an obligation to support people who want to do that.
Recognizing and respecting differences in others, and treating everyone like you want them to treat you, will help make our world a better place for everyone. Care... be your best. You don't have to be handicapped to be different. Everyone is different!
In high school, people are sometimes encouraged to be like everyone else. What's so great about this show is that these kids are weird and different and over-achievers. They know what they want and they're going after it. They're weird and they don't deny it. That's what makes it special.
Like everyone else, I want to be challenged. I want to find out whether or not I am a coward. I want to see how much effort I can put out . . . what I can endure . . . if I measure up. Running allows that.
I always tried to be different from everyone else. Then I found out about boxing. That was the way I could be different from everyone else. I always went against the crowd.
I realize I'm not different. I want what everyone wants. I want what they all want. I want all the things. I just want to be happy.
I can make a record like the [previous] one I put out, but I don't want to do that because I want to set the bar so high for myself. I don't want to do it like everyone else.
I totally understand everyone else's view. They are obviously different to mine and I respect that but what I don't want to do is compromise what I believe in.