MAKE

The challenge is to be yourself in a world that's trying to make you like everyone else.

I'm sure Woody from Toy Story would totally disagree with me.  He might even push me out a window for saying so, but, wearing a cowboy hat doesn't make you a cowboy. 
What makes somebody something?
Hmmmm.
I have no clue.  But I know what doesn't make you something.
Calling someone a loser doesn't make you a winner.
Calling someone ugly doesn't make you beautiful.
Calling someone stupid doesn't make you smart.
Saying someone sucks doesn't make you better than them.
Sticking feathers up your ass doesn't make you a chicken.
Sorry.  Had to go there.
Because I find it frustrating when someone tells me that I'm not a writer/photographer/chef/hair stylist/fashionista/fillinthedamnblank because I don't have a degree.
That piece of paper won't MAKE you anything. 
It's not a pen/keyboard that makes me a writer: it's the words I type, and I have my own stories and my own way of sharing them.  I don't expect everyone to like them, but I do expect people to be respectful of my opinions just as I am of theirs.
It's not my camera that makes me a photographer: it's the pictures I take, and I have my own style of taking them that probably isn't for everyone and not always traditional, but then when talking about "art", it's all subjective and everyone is going to have an opinion, which means no one is right.
You get the picture?
I don't need someone to validate my chosen activity of the moment by deeming me capable because I took a certain number of appropriate classes. 
I'd just like to say that I can do what I want because I want to, not because someone else says I can.
I might sound like a broken record here, but no matter how many classes you take, you aren't going to go very far if you spend all your energy being nasty to others.
So, calling someone a name or giving them a label doesn't really make them anything.  It does make you something though-mean and immature.
You can put on a cowboy hat and walk around talking about spurs and pardners and saloons.  You can take cowboy classes and someone can certify you as ranch-ready.  But when it comes down to it, that doesn't guarantee you can rope a steer or break a stallion.
It is what we do that defines us.  And if actions speak louder than words and all you do is talk, you're not saying anything I haven't heard already, so go do what it is you want to do and leave me alone. 
I'm going to make myself what I want to be, despite whether or not you think I can.