We don’t know what it’s like to be them.

To want to dance as a career, but are having troubles with the more complex moves. To have ballet shoes that can break your toes if you go up wrong. To lose the chance for a part because you were late to auditions.

To want to fill people’s stomachs with food, but can’t get the quickness of professional chefs. To have bandages all over your fingers because you got too close. To lose to another chef in a test to see who was better.

To want to belt out the lyrics to the original song you wrote, but cannot hit the notes correctly. To have a chronic cough from singing in the wrong pitch for far too long. To lose your friends because they don’t want to hear you sing another musical in their cars.

To want to fix people’s broken bones, but no matter how much you try the entrance exam is too much. To have made it through the course just fine, but the final test for residency is too difficult. To lose the only opportunity to help people without an emotional attachment.

To want people to recognize your voice, your face, but afraid of the attention. To have an ability to manipulate your voice, but nobody notices you when you want the attention. To lose that part because you didn’t look the way they wanted you to.

To want to lead, but the electors are too lazy to do their research on what candidates are doing. To have the least amount of votes out of all the potential office members. To lose your place because you weren’t good enough.

To want to stop the fire from spreading, but stronger more capable people get there first. To have torn muscles and burnt body parts from pulling pets and children out of the flames. To lose someone to the smoke.

To want to put things back in their places, but you don’t understand the system the others use. To have immense knowledge but nobody asks any questions. To lose your home when government funding made books something unavailable to those who can’t buy them.

We may not know what it’s like to be them. However, we know what it’s like to be us.

To want to be dancers, chefs and bakers, musicians, nurses and doctors, actors, politicians and CEOs, firefighters, mentors and librarians.

To want to be better.

To have broken bones, someone better than us, someone who is always stronger, or faster, or prettier, or more talented than us.

To have cuts and scars on our arms and on our hearts.

To lose our friends and family and dreams to smoke and flames, defunding and abuse, and other things that are not our faults.

To lose ourselves to the expectations of them-

And somehow, we are the failures.