Don’t all run out to get your capes at once.

Why capes? Well, you’re all superheroes, of course. And what superhero doesn’t wear a cape? Certainly none of superheroes in the stories I’ve read.

Yet, maybe the storybook superheroes need a makeover. Maybe even a reality check. Because those aren’t what superheros really look like. Real superheroes walk down the street in Ugg boots and sweatpants. Lululemons and jeans. They drive cars instead of fly, do homework, binge on cookie dough, and even cram for tests.

In English, we just finished reading the play Six Degrees of Separation—a story about how all around the world, we are all connected to eat other by other six degrees of separation. But it’s not just connections. We impact each other by only those few degrees as well.

Friday, I was walking down the hall as usual. Well, not just as usual. On this particular day, snow hugged my boots and all my concentration was focused down at the slippery tile floor, promising myself that if I could be spared from slipping and making a complete fool out of myself, then I’d stop pretending that I already called ‘shotgun’ just to see the satisfaction of my brother not getting it. I’d say the one time I kneed myself in the eye on a friend’s trampoline and developed what looked like a plum taking over my eye was enough embarrassment for this lifetime. I guess this ‘shotgun’ scheme must come to an end.

But I digress. On this morning, I must have received a thousand “Hi’s.” Just a usual part of my school day, greeting others in the hallway, yet it is something I’ve always brushed off. Not that big of a deal. Yet, the more people that greeted me, the more I greeted others. It was just spiraling, bouncing off from one person to another. Who knows, maybe everyone was greeted this morning with a friendly hello. Now let me remind you that at this point, I was already pretty late to class. The bell had rung, I had yet to throw my workout clothes in my locker for after school, and to sum it all up, I was just plain tardy. But this didn’t stop me. Yes, I am quite the social one—today it was at the expense of the first period class.

And since that morning, I haven’t been able to shake this idea of the teeny, itsy, bitsy, six degrees that separates us from each other. Six. Now on my math homework graphs, 90 degrees doesn’t seem like too much. I can’t even imagine trying to point out six.

It could be the stranger you held the door open for today at Starbucks, or the woman who saw you were carrying a ton of boxes, and held it open for you. (You’re probably wondering where I came up with that one, and yes, it did happen to me today. My mom was making me run her errands and carry boxes. Thanks for that.)

With only six degrees, our impacts on one another’s life are much stronger than any door holding, though. For a while now, cyber bullying has spiraled out of control. Completely. We can comfortably sit behind our computer screens, saying “that’s not happening to me and I would never do that either.” That’s great. No one should. Yet, we’re only six degrees of someone hiding behind their computer screen on the bullying end. And only six degrees from the bully.

Videos like Jonah Mowry’s, in which an eighth-grader shared the pain of bullying through note cards, touched people when it went viral. Even stars like Lady Gaga gave a shout out to Jonah for having the courage to share his story and give hope to those suffering all over the world. We didn’t get that tingly feeling and teary eyes while watching the video for nothing. It was our super-senses kicking in.

We’re all superheroes. It’s time to take advantage of it, and make a change.