I spent many nights growing up feeling bad about what set me apart from the crowd. I was sick of feeling guilty for not being great at school, but writing awesome stories during creative writing. I felt guilty for having no "talent." I wasn't very athletic or musical, but what I failed to be taught in school was that talent comes in all shapes and sizes. Talent can be having an infectious personality that can put a smile on anyones face. Talent can be just being a really good person in a really harsh world. Talent can be whatever you deem special, and to me that is very subjective. They don't teach you that because you can't throw a football, play an instrument, or test well, that you still might have something to offer the world. This creates a percentage of children with low self-esteem, who eventually turn into adults not able to see their value.
Why is it that when you are growing up, everything that sets you apart is what you are made to feel bad about? The kids who were constantly experimenting with their hair were made fun of for their interesting taste in style, but grow up to be the ones you can’t get a hair appointment booked with unless it is weeks in advance, as an adult. The kids who were extra quiet but really smart were made to be the ones who were not as “cool,” but end up leading very interesting lives as adults. The minds that were so smart it filled their heads with so much that they felt overwhelmed and it led them to be “quiet” and “weird” but it also led them to an amazing job. The ones who were made fun of because they were really into fashion and beauty and were made to feel like they weren’t the right gender or personality. They were told because of those things they would never make it, but now as adults they run on fashion and beauty magazines, coffee, and the view from their apartment over looking the new city they are living in, dominating their industry. Or the ones like me, the quieter, old soul type who would write, and write, and write until the pages in their composition notebook labeled “Social Studies” ran out of pages.
I would say the majority of people reading this right now had something about them that growing up made them “different.” Well what sets you apart, very often sets you free.
The labels we put on those that don’t fit into the cultural norms are put there to make those with no jagged edges, feel better. Those who are so cookie cutter they can’t understand a male makeup artist or a female racecar driver. Labeling what some cannot seem to understand makes them feel better about fitting in all too well.
Growing up many will try to tell you, you need to change what sets you apart. People think you need to alter the way you do certain things so that you can blend in with the crowd better, when in reality you were created to do the exact opposite.
If you are someone with a talent, a personality “flaw”, an appearance that doesn’t match the norm, anyone who has ANYTHING about them that sets them apart, the last thing you need to do is to try and change it. Especially because someone may have pointed it out. Do you talk a lot? Have a gap between your teeth? Have an “obnoxious” laugh? Exclude yourself too much because you are introvert? The things you have been taught to dislike about yourself are also something that someone will adore about you. Trust me.
If you are constantly feeling like you can’t make anyone around you happy with simply being who you are completely, then you are surrounded by all the wrong people. When you are surrounded by the right people you will feel confident that your laugh isn’t obnoxious, it is infectious.
You were put on this earth to be different, plain and simple. Follow what makes you different to wherever it takes you, and turn it into a passion. Anyone who magnifies your insecurities, anyone who doesn’t adore the little things that make you, you, is uncomfortable with themselves. They are even more uncomfortable supporting and loving you. What makes you different, and what stands out about you as a person, will eventually be what people seek you out for, and love you for. The right ones will see the talent behind the quirkiness and encourage you to go wherever it may take you. Being surrounded by the right people is step one, loving who you are, all the good and the bad that comes with everything that you are, is step two. On this road, baby steps, are better then no steps.
