I have a theory about the world, well, about the people in the world. My theory, simply stated is that the best people, the people that you most want to be around, are the ones who are unabashedly themselves. I’m sure you know people like this, they love what they love and they won’t apologize about it. They don’t care if it is dorky to like Star Wars too much, if playing the accordion is weird, if running for miles and miles is insane, or if telling it like it is is uncouth. They are just true to themselves.
The benefit of being true to yourself is that you aren’t letting other’s notions define or sway you into fitting preconceived ideas of what is acceptable. You are following your passion. This isn’t a new thought. No one is going to sit down and say ‘just do what everyone else is doing’ ‘be a sheep,’ but yet, we are still encouraged to fall in line time and time again. And so often the line we are told to follow is either mundane or totally insane.
It is surprising that being one of the cool kids, seemingly the most prestigious position to find yourself in, means that you often have to blindly accept what others are telling you to do, or make fun of those doing something different. This breeds self-policing cliques where you are either afraid your friends will turn on you or you are tuning on others. Now I don’t know about you but I don’t have time for people like that in my life. I like the outcasts, the weirdos, the Star Trek geeks, because weird accepts weird, but does popular rarely accept popular.
I work with kids and I’ve seen the cool kids tear each other apart. What I don’t understand is why people stand for this. I guess it has something to do with fear of being an outcast. But the best part of outcastdome, and this is the kicker, is that once you stop trying to fit into those moulds you get to explore whatever you want, do whatever you like, and generally you find other amazing passionate people, being supportive of your oddities.
With this in mind, I say we all strive a little bit more to hang out at the cusp, push outside your comfort zone, and stop fearing the repercussions of what someone will say. I’ve been very lucky to find a group of weirdos to surround myself with, and they have by far been kinder, more supportive, and more genuine than any ‘cool’ kids I’ve ever tried to impress.
She Rambles 