The Only Me

Essential Questions: What shapes us into who we are? What makes an individual unique? What does it mean to become your true self, and how can you do it?

Write the following questions on your board and ask students to choose one and respond to it in their journals:

What shapes us into who we are?
Do you think every person is unique? Explain.
What does it mean to be your true self?

Make sure students are familiar with the following vocabulary words in the poem:

eon: In science, an eon is about a billion years. Eon is also used to mean simply “a very, very long period of time—so long that it can’t be measured.”

vast: very great in size, amount, degree, or intensity; immense 

array: In the poem, array is used to mean “an impressive display or arrangement of something.”

evolving: changing over time

As a class, listen to the audio read-aloud of the poem, which is located in the Resources tab in Teacher View and at the top of the story page in Student View.


For a second read, invite students to read the poem silently to themselves. Then discuss the following questions as a class.

1. What is the speaker’s tone or attitude in the first two stanzas? Which words, ideas, or images help create this tone? The speaker sounds full of wonder or awe. They refer to the “evolving wonders” of our earth. The words eons and vast evoke a feeling of things that are so big that they are beyond our ability to fully comprehend them. The speaker also names beautiful and, for the most part, powerful elements of nature—oceans, rivers, mountains, glaciers, etc.—and refers to the extraordinary number and variety of human beings on the planet. You get the feeling that the speaker is thinking about the world with amazement.

2. The first time the speaker asks “Can I be the only me?” is in the third stanza. Think about how this question connects to the two stanzas before it. Then explain why the speaker is wondering if they can really be the only person like them. The speaker asks this question after thinking about the enormous number of people on the planet. The speaker seems to be thinking that with so many people, there has to be someone somewhere who is just like them.

3. What is the tone of the fourth and fifth stanzas? How is it similar to or different from the tone of the first three stanzas? Explain. In the fourth and fifth stanzas, the speaker has a more troubled or concerned tone than in the first few stanzas, referring not only to awe-inspiring and beautiful aspects of our world, but also to some of the dark, negative, or challenging aspects of our world. In the fourth stanza, the speaker refers to beauty and goodness—but also to hate and greed. And in the fifth stanza, when the speaker describes their teacher encouraging them to cool the climate and grow peace, they are acknowledging the crisis of climate change and the fact that there is a lack of peace in the world.

4. What do you think the speaker means when they ask “Can I be the only me, become all my unique complexity?” in the last stanza? How is this question different from when the speaker asks “Can I be the only me?” in the third stanza? Answers will vary, but students may offer that when the speaker ponders becoming all of their unique complexity, they are talking about living as their true or authentic self—letting their light shine or becoming the best version of themself—rather than trying to change themself to conform to what they think is expected or please others. Here the speaker seems to know there is something special and unique inside them and they are hoping they can live up to their full potential and perhaps contribute to solving the world’s problems (cooling the planet, growing peace, sowing beauty and goodness rather than hate and greed), whereas in the third stanza, they are wondering how it could be possible in such a crowded world that there’s no one else like them.

5. Consider the illustration by Katty Huertas. How does it capture the ideas or tone of the poem? The illustration includes many elements from the poem: mountains, rivers, leaves (as from redwoods), a tiger, a parrot, and a background of outer space. There is a sense of everything swirling around the young person who is looking up, which connects to the image of our planet “spinning through space for eons” and also suggests that the person is thinking about the things swirling around them. In addition, the thoughtful expression of the young person connects to the thoughtful tone of the poem.

Have students use what they wrote in their journals at the beginning of the lesson as well as the Writing Planner to help them respond to the writing prompt that follows the poem:

Use this poem as inspiration to write a short essay answering two questions: What makes you the unique person you are? Do you think there’s anyone else just like you—or even a lot like you?