One day I was walking along the water’s edge at Lake Galena and saw a line of cute, little yellow ducklings swimming in a neat line behind their mother. They were so fluffy, well-behaved, and exactly identical. 

I thought to myself, “Life would be so much easier if everyone was the same, just like those baby ducks.”

Hi! 

Hi. My name is Kathryn Cozza, and I am a kid, not a duck. 

I am sixteen years old, go to high school, and live with my family in Hilltown, Pennsylvania. 

Do this!

No, do that! 

?

Once I became a teenager I thought I didn’t fit in anymore. 

Everybody kept telling me what I needed to do and how to behave. Some people treated me like a child. Some people treated me like an adult. 

Clubs!

Eat your veggies!

Join sports!

Get a hobby!

Everyone had plenty of advice for me. “Eating green beans will make you pretty,” said one of my sister’s friends. “You have to join a million clubs or you won’t get into college,” said someone else. There was so much advice, in fact, that I couldn’t figure out what to do. So I looked at the people around me I thought were successful and decided to be like them. 

My sister is great at school. Abby loves to read. Any time that she isn’t doing homework, she can be found somewhere reading a book. 

So I started looking through her personal library.

    There were lots of books with wizards and werewolves and warriors. 

  Ugh. I hate those kinds of books. 

Sleepy time! ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

But I tried to read one anyway. 

It made my head hurt. Then I fell asleep.

I tried again. Same result. 

I found a different book and tried again. 

It gave me a headache.

Ah ha!

Then again, maybe not...

Maybe being just like Abby wasn’t the answer. I put the books away and tried to find another source of inspiration: my parents! Who doesn’t want to be like their parents, right?

Turns out that I didn’t. I mean, I love them, but don’t want to be them. 

Let's get to work!

My mom’s the Boss Lady and is always in charge, at work and at home. She has a solution to everything and keeps the rest of us on track. So I decided I’d start telling people what to do, too. 

You're not the boss of me! 

Me either!

Annnnnnd all I did was make everyone mad at me. Evidently, to be in charge you have to know what’s going on and what needs to be done. This was not my strength: I can’t even handle group texts where people won’t make up their minds.

Everything'll be fine. Don't worry about it! 

My dad is a “go with the flow” kind of guy. I mean, it’s March and he still doesn’t know where my bus stop is yet! “Come on, man!” But he seems pretty content, so I decided to just relax like him.

What a mess!