Sonny Noy

Kawatta, différent, and dissimilis, in any other language the word "different" to me still means to stand out and/or be out of the ordinary. "Different from" and "different than" are both common in British and American English. The construction "different to" is mainly British because the 18th century, language critics have singled out "different than" as incorrect. Traditional guidlines say "from" is used to compare between two persons or things.

"In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different." This is a quote by Coco Chanel that explains how being atypical is not something to fear but something to strive for. In the book The Giver Jonas was peculiar from everyone else because he was the only one who could learn of true pain and happiness. The community that Jonas lived in cherished similarities and knew of no other way of living. After he learned of an offbeat way of life that his community was ignorant of Jonas chose to run away and join a new community. Jonas' strive to be different lead him to his freedom.

In the movie "Whale Rider" the girl, Paikea, chose to break the rules to become a very important person in her village. In her village males were the ones who studied the ancient ways. She broke the rules and learned the ancient ways and inadvertently became the chief of the village by passong some of the most difficult test of the ancient ways. If she hadn't chose to be different and break the rules she would have never become the most important person in her village.

We all have the freedom to be different. It is something we should try to achieve and not to fear just because our community expects us to be similar. We must learn to fight for what we believe in ourselves and learn from our lessons of "Shooting an Elephant." Our differences will make us irreplaceable.