My aunt sent me this picture not that long ago. I did not recall that day, or had ever seen this photograph before, but when I looked at that image of myself with my relatives I was just like “YES!” and the reason why I had such a strong reaction is because that’s me sitting there with the huge pair of swimming goggles on my face. I have always been that one, the weird girl.
We have been told our entire lives not to stick out. Do not be different, we need to fit in or face isolation and despair of being alone. Society doesn’t know what to do with us. We won’t get a job or find a suitable partner.
I struggled with friendships sometimes, there were girls that openly had disdain for me, and other kids that seemed intrigued or entertained, but kept their distance. I did not have much self awareness at the time and I will tell you that all through my childhood and even my teen years I did not know that I was so strange. I actually did not understand why I wasn’t more liked by my peers. The girls in high-school that had all the boys fawning over them…I thought they were boring AF and I totally didn’t get it.
I’ve come to understand that blending in isn’t even an option for the dreamers and the weirdos. It is so much a part of ourselves that it reaches down to the deepest recesses of our being. I wasn’t actively TRYING to be rejected as a child, I didn’t even understand what I was doing wrong. It can be a long painful path, for me mostly it was frustrating. I grew up in a time before the internet, and you didn’t have access to anyone beyond your playground, or neighbourhood. We are coming to a point in time where we are really on a deeper level starting to understand just how much it is necessary to accept ourselves. I believe that being able to go online and find other weirdos has been a healing part of my life. There seem to be less of us, but we are here.
Now more than ever it is becoming increasingly important to be different. This isn’t a discussion about AI, but I will say this. With the introduction of AI anyone can have access to the ability to create things, however AI has a level of “sameness” to it. I am seeing it start to saturate. While that sounds like a bad thing, it means that now is our time! This is the moment to shine beyond all the sameness, not just with whatever it is you might create, but with your voice, with who you are. Being a real live authentic human being is going to become a hot commodity. I’m here for it with my weirdness a-blazing!
Understand that some people are just made to be different. We feel it to our core, it is literally who we are. And without the normies out there being all boring and living their lives like robots on auto-pilot we wouldn’t have anything to compare ourselves to. We wouldn’t have a reference point for how NOT to be.
So if you are picking up what I am putting down, here’s what has to happen asap.
Embrace your quirks
Share your quirks
Accept that you won’t be everyone’s cup of tea
Repeat.
I was, am and will be the weird girl. I got weird girl vibes and I’m going to bring it to everything I do now.