To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting. ↗
But when you get to a song, not only do you have to do a vocal melody, you have to write words and not be redundant and make some semblance of a story. ↗
If you feel inside you are a woman, be a woman - no one can take that away from you, man. No one can make that feeling go away. If that's what you need to do to be complete, then no one has the right to tell you you can't do that. ↗
High school teachers who want to get reluctant readers turned around need to give the students some say in the reading list. Make it collaborative: The students will feel ownership, and everyone will dig in. ↗