Individual

By Keshawn McMiller

3:17 a.m… it’s the fourth time this week
you’ve woken up in the middle of the night,
and you can’t go back to sleep. The bags
under your eyes are piling on as if you were
filling an ice cream cone however, your
thoughts are anything but sweet… instead,
they are clouded by a haze of laughter, predispositioned judgments and fear. Fear of
arising to an ongoing world where, J’s and
a swoosh can keep you in the loop, where
men on horses are more valuable than the
fabric itself, and no Gucci Gang means
you can’t hang- (with conviction) you are…
different. You ponder some thoughts and
let out a soft-hearted chuckle… how did a
parents’ words on your first day of school,
“Just be yourself,” slowly transform into
“just fit in” or how your best friend Michael
of nine years decided he didn’t want to
hang with you anymore, because you
jammed out to Sibelius’s Violin Concerto in
D minor after class on those headphones
that couldn’t quite contain the sound as well
as Beats, and you can’t even read music…

You see, labels are pros at either uniting
or dividing us… “I say popular girl with
makeup,” you say, “stuck up and entitled,” I
say “tall and muscular guy,” you say, “dumb
athlete.” Well that “athlete” just so happens
to be learning how to code in hopes of
developing their first app… and popular
girl? Well, let’s just say Kyrie Irving isn’t
the only one with a Ph.D. in ball handling…
That would be the case, if society hadn’t
pressured and pressed these two through
its cookie cutter molds we call stereotypes,
oh what could’ve been… There’s a lesson
to be learnt here, and it starts with this
definition. Individual:(noun) or better yet,
a person. Not, a weirdo, not mentally
deranged, not living in the Stone Age, or
under a rock, a person, just like you and
just like me. So why not be individuals
for once? You may just come to find
out, you were never alone after all…