Students Aren't Stupid

There are 26 letters in the English language.
According to my grade one teacher, 6 of these are eligible as vowels, and, according to my linguistics professor, approximately twelve spoken vowels exist.
Give or take a few thousand either way, there are 988 968 words in the English language, based on research conducted by the Global Language Monitor.
There are only so many ways to "make" words; the possibilities are finite, limited by phonetics, meaning, and grammar. By this logic, there are only so many ways that words can be put together in sentences and paragraphs before we start to repeat ourselves and one another's words. What a disheartening and depressing observation..
And yet, we do not know, realize, or, for the most part, care, when we duplicate our phrasing or the phrasing of others. Instead, it is the ideas present within the phrasing that seem to hold the most value--even though there are finite possibilities for these also! It's very possible that I have never (ever) had a truly original thought in my entire life.
Up until this realization, I thought I was unique, at least to a certain extent--but this doesn't bother me. Want to know why? I don't care! My thoughts are my own, and I don't care who thought them "first," or who will think them "next," or how many people have thought them before me. My ideas are my own.
I realize that I'm only a lowly undergrad, who hasn't even completed her first English course. And yet, the "great" and "famous" people whose ideas I must "quote" were once the same age as me, in the same stage of their life, with as little (or even less) experience. It is the opportunity to BE great which has made their words GREAT, and these opportunities exist and are available to everyone.
To pass my English course, I will dutifully scratch out the names and locations of various facts and quotes throughout my essays. But, no matter how many people I must reference or how many texts I must search through to find a reference, the thoughts within my papers will only be my own. Their quotes may support my ideas--but they are not the same. There is a reason I am writing what I am writing--because I believe in it.