The Importance Of Individuality

How much of an individual am I? I am a Cuban- American born female from both a culturally diverse and homogenous city. This place that I call home is Miami, a city which falls under the Miami-Dade county limits. In an environment where I have the same cultural characteristics, either identical/similar to 70% of the city population, how do I stand out? My exclusivity can be narrowed down by establishing that I am a 17 year old student and I attend an all-girls high school. To further quantify my individuality, you can compare my GPA, classes, and grades to other students in my class and arrange us in ranking order. However, I assure you that after all that examination, on paper, I will be identical to dozens of students in my grade. This plateau in my individuality is something that I struggle with a times. I often view this as something suffocating and I loathe the feeling of being incompetent that follows. So again, I wonder, while laying on my bed, how am I my own individual? I am a member of several honor societies and clubs and I have done my fair share of community service, but all of this only adds to the “paper”. My interests

I wonder if I had taken more of those classic logically adverse risks that many teenagers make if I would have been any different from how I am now. While I have seen my friends and acquaintances around me experience these events I would watch and just move on. I guess the reason why I have not done many or any of these things is because they just are not in my plans. I have this unfortunate habit of holding myself back to achieve success first and then enjoy myself. I think I place this pressure on myself to do my best for my mother because of all the obstacles she has been through. However, I also have this idea that I want to be a different person from my mother and live happily and my way of doing this is by minding myself and just moving