Every child feels special. They dream of lives as astronauts, star atheletes, celebrities and such. But, at some point, most people lose the sense of a special destiny or having the potential for fame. They accept that they are ordinary people.
I’m curious whether you still feel special? Is their a bestseller waiting in you? Do you have some grand destiny to fulfill? Or have you come to terms with being ordinary?
I’ve accepted that I’m pretty ordinary.
My kids, however, are special.
Who says I’m ordinary? :mad:
I’m the most special me there ever was. Ain’t no me’s like me! 
Ever since I got to work this morning, there has been a small jar of peanuts on my desk with my name written all over it. I am aquiver with anticipation.
The only trouble is, once I have fulfilled my purpose, I will need to buy more peanuts.
I still feel special. That’s partly because I’m in a very unusual kind of job – there are only about a dozen people in the world with a job title similar to mine, and I think I know all of them – and what I do in my job has an impact in many countries around the world.
I’m going to have to say no. My sweet mother never told me I would get to be an astronaut. I started getting jobs when I was thirteen or so and have had one ever since. Life is hard and then you die. One of my favorite sayings. Just trying to make the trip better for those around me before I go is all I got.
I feel unique. I don’t know if that’s the same as special, and I don’t think my parents ever made me feel special.
Weirdly enough, I do.
I didn’t when I a was a kid though. The more great stuff that keeps happening to me lately, the more I feel like everything is orchestrated by destiny, like all my experiences leading up to this point have been necessary to shape me into the person that will someday be capable of great leadership. And I strive to be a rational person… but the feeling just lingers… all the events in my life just make too much sense to chalk it all up to randomness.
Nietzsche had a theory that man believes in God because he lacks the courage to admit that he himself is a god. I keep waffling between the two, like I ought to thank somebody for my life, but that somebody might be myself.
I feel like I’m living my life backwards. I started out feeling useless and cursed and without hope, and the longer I live, the more innocent and optimistic and starry-eyed I become.
Have a great day. 
I’m 27, and still believe I’m special and destined for great things. I will watch this thread with great interest to see who else believes this, as sometimes I think my life would be a whole lot easier if I just accepted myself as “average”, content to just go to work and come home and watch TV.
olivesmarch4th - you always brighten my day. Today in Connecticut it’s humid, down pouring rain, thunder, yet everything is OK.
To the OP: I feel special. Many people notice, and I’ve gotten emails to the effect that I tend to jump into the fray quite a bit. I tend to the less-than-ordinary. I’m a man in my 30’s who is married with no children yet, who loves treehouses and nature stuff. I still wear Birkenstocks [sans the socks unless they are grey wool and it’s autumn] I like to make things with my hands, and I like to do my share to protectt he environment.
I’m not ready to write a bestseller but I’m not opposed to dreaming I may have one in me. I’m growing old with a little tact, I love life most of the time and I deal with the mudane just as well as I deal with pleasure.
In the end I do feel special in my neck of life. I have people who care about me, not too many who wish me harm [the occasional keebler here and there :)] and make a more than decent living with a solid space in my community.
This is a faulty premise for me. I never felt special or dreamed I could do anything. Even the idea of having to be competent enough to support myself was daunting and frightening. Any success I had at the things I had to do (like school) were only my responsibility and nothing to be proud of. The most I could hope for was to survive.
That feeling persists.
<Pulls out Grocery List>
<Adds: “PEANUTS”>
<Pulls out Today’s Hero List>
<Adds: “Cervaise”>
<Wanders off whistling>
I’ve never felt particularly special. I’ve felt that if I tried hard enough, I could do most things, but I don’t think that’s necessarily special. That just means you have to work your butt off to get what you want.
So, no, I don’t feel particularly special to the world at large. Though I do feel special to my family and friends, and especially so to my son and husband.
I have never felt special. I’m still getting over my indoctrination to the point where I feel ordinary, instead of worthless.
I felt special when I was a kid. Then there was a period when I knew I wasn’t special, but my grandfather didn’t. Then he died, so I guess he never found out. Grandma thinks I was born special, but wasted everything. Secretly, I was only average the whole time!
I remember exactly when I gave it up. I was 32. 
This sums up my feelings on life as a whole, as well. I started off life feeling terrible, frightened of everything, loathing and bitter, depressed and angry. The longer I live, however, the better it gets, to the point now that I am almost the exact opposite of the person I was about 12 years ago. It was a long road, but worth it. I am generally friendlier, happier, smile more, sing more, love harder and more often, and laughingly accept my own faults and am optimistic about overcoming them (or just living with them).
I don’t know if I feel special, per se, but I certainly do feel earnest. I do think I’ve got a novel or two in me, but I don’t know if they’ll be great - just fun and hopefully a little entertaining.
I feel a little special about being able to bring a bit of happiness into the lives of those around me with my newer, lighter attitude. But that’s reciprocated, and that makes people special to me, too.
I’m talking in circles. Whee!
I have never thought of myself as “ordinary”, I have always thought of myself as at least slightly above average in most respects that I care about. On the other hand I never particularly thought I was “destined for greatness” either… Just a general assumption (arrogance?) that the only thing really limiting me is opportunity, time and an ability to focus or concentrate on a goal.
I did well in school, got into a “selective” high school and college, majored in something practical like my parents wanted, got a well paying job that I’m good at, got married, have wonderful kids, bought a house near my parents in NYC before the huge run up in real estate costs (well, only three years into it at any rate). Other than taking a 100% loss on a particular Internet stock that went under in the early 2000s, I’ve had no complaints or major regrets about my choices or actions. I do speculate occasionally on how things might have turned out had I taken a different road, as does anybody else, but if actually given the opportunity to really go back and redo things in a non-reversible way, I wouldn’t trade what I have now for any alternative that might or might not have developed in my life.
On the other hand I’ve never really felt like I have a purpose beyond living well and raising happy, smart and healthy children. It’s like I’m on a ride. If my life is building up to something, I’ll find out what it is when I get there. In more brooding moments this feels somewhat ominous: my life’s been pretty good, so what’s the catch? Am I heading towards some kind of grand Oedipal downfall, that I might serve as a warning to others? Or towards a banal end to a conventional (if successful) life?
I’ve never discussed this with anyone, and I never realized anyone felt the same way.
I always felt special as a kid. I was precocious and an early reader. I always felt like my teachers really liked me and could see my potential.
I was well into adult-hood before I realized I’m incredibly mediocre. I’m so average I’m off the charts
I’m a teacher, and I wonder what will happen to the many students I teach who are constantly told by their parents that they are special and above everyone else.
(BTW…my feeling of being special never, ever caused me to be arrogant or insufferable. I kept it to myself.)