Maybe you think you're doing yourself a favor by comparing yourself to all the other girls; you wish your hair was as effortlessly wavy and golden as the girl's in your 8 a.m. class, or perhaps you wish that you could pull off the all-natural "no makeup" look without looking frightening to all humankind. Even still, it may not at all apply to our physical appearance; maybe you think that you must not be a very good student because someone else tends to get slightly higher grades than you.

We are not strangers to this sense of striving to be like everyone else, to this sense of feeling that because you don't do what they do, they must be doing it better. Whether you are consciously aware of it or not, it's something we probably do all the time: When you're walking down the street, sitting in a café or any other moment where you're going to be exposed to other people.

I completely understand, I really do. Frankly, I don't think we would be truly human if we didn't engage in this behavior. But what is it that we get out of this type of behavior? Only disappointment and jealousy, which are quite detrimental to your mental well-being.

I'm here to tell you this: You don't need to have the seemingly-perfect golden wavy hair to feel good about yourself. You don't need to have the best no-makeup face to feel good about yourself. Newsflash: you also don't need to get the absolute best grade in the class in order to feel good about yourself.

You are made the way you are because you are perfect the way you are, and nobody can take that away from you.

There is nothing advantageous to wishing you were someone else or that you were more like someone else because you never will be. You have the hair, the face, the mentality, the personality and all the other characteristics of you that make you absolutely perfect; you are the literal embodiment of you. There is no reason to be envious of another physical or mental characteristic of someone else, nor will it be fruitful to wish you had the skills that another person has.

Of course, you should be hard on yourself if you think you aren't being the best person you can be. You should always strive to be the best person of yourself no matter the situation. And, guess what? If you're doing this step, then you're already being your best self.

So, go ahead. Take those parts of you, own them and flaunt them, because they are part of you. And those aspects of you are what makes you perfect. Besides, you're the subject of others' envy; and why wouldn't you be?