We are not girls who committed to Stanford or the lead actresses of the school play. We are just two ordinary students walking in the shadows of everyone else who is prancing in the light because we don’t have a thing.

At school we hear about the students who are doing great things with their life while they leave their marks at SMCHS. Sometimes we think to ourselves: “How are they so smart? How are they so athletic? How are they so talented and gifted?”

People define others — and even themselves — by what they’re known for: achievements, awards, wins, leadership roles. Students identified by these things are looked at as “ultimate goals.” But what about us? What is going to get us into college? What can we put on our resumes?

Sometimes we might get jealous of others who are recognized for reaching their full potential in whatever it is they’re passionate about. There’s a girl pole vaulting 14 feet, focusing on the next four years she’s about to spend at Stanford, while we sit here and count down the last 14 minutes until lunchtime and focus on the cookies we are about to eat. In other words, what are we going to do with our lives?

We might not be stand outs at school, but we are not bad students and we don’t break the rules. On the other hand, we don’t do anything that’s worth noticing. We don’t have an eye for art or the highest GPA with multiple extracurricular activities. But maybe we don’t really need to find a thing.

Maybe we already do have a thing. Our thing is made up of our qualities, experiences, needs and messages. All of these things are within us but we might not have realized them yet.

Everything we care about makes us who we are and we can choose to do something with it or not — but it is still our thing and it’s even more than that. Everything combines together to form a vital “us-ness.”

What we have might be small compared to the students who are making so much out of themselves. Sure, we have brown hair, contagious laughs and big smiles, on the outside. But on the inside, we have something no one else has. We have our individuality, our positive outlook on life, our big heart and our faith.

We might always be envious of someone who “has a thing” and one day we hope to find something similar to what they have, but it’s dawned on us that these teenage prodigies are their own individual people just like we are our own people. It’s just a matter of defining who we are on the inside. Our inner self is what makes us who we are and that is our thing.

We believe everyone is born with a certain purpose in life, whether it be a special talent, extraordinary athleticism or even a religious vocation. People grow up to become who they are meant to be. Everyone has their own special thing whether they have found it and accepted it yet. There are many different ways to become the person you are destined to be. That path to becoming your true self and obtaining your own “thing” may have some bumps and give you some bruises but once you reach your destination — your full potential — the ride is well worth it.

It’s okay to not have a defined “thing” yet because that doesn’t necessarily mean you don’t have one. Maybe you just haven’t been searching for it or maybe it’s taken too long to find it and you’ve given up. But you don’t have to choose a thing. Your thing can encompass all of you, not just a specific part. We’ve decided to just live our lives to the fullest and if along the way we discover what our specific thing is — what our calling in life is — then we’ll add it to who we already are.

Everything we were, everything we are and everything we will be are all part of us. Therefore, it is all part of our thing. So embrace who you are and let life carry out its plan for you.