A weirdo and proud of it

[pjthompson]

Here's an interesting post from the Productive Flourishing blog about "Weirdo Syndrome." (Thanks to bummble for pointing me there.)

He makes some good points about how those things that sometimes make us feel like outsiders are actually our greatest strengths. It took me a long time to realize that I was glad I wasn't like Them, the Normals, and never would be. It doesn't always make it an easy road, especially growing up, but you can survive your teens and early twenties and grow to like that deviance. Treasure it, even.

The trick is knowing that different does not mean broken and useless. Oh yeah—and that thing he says about finding other weirdos to hang out with. Like I said, it took me a while to figure that one out. I'm glad I finally did.

Comments

[jandersoncoats.livejournal.com]

I guess I'm kind of lucky in that I realized about age 14 that I liked what I liked and it made me freakin odd and that was okay. I've never been conflicted about "normal" - I can't even remember a time when I wanted to fit in.

I got a lot of flak for being weird, and that bothered me, but it didn't make me want to change. It made me more defiantly weird. I figured, "They're going to make fun of me no matter what, so screw it, I'm going to do whatever the hell I want."

It's my personal mission to nurture the weird in my kid and his friends and any other kids I meet with a touch of weird in them. The world needs more weird.

[pjthompson]

Nurture the weird! Yes, by all means.

I wanted to fit in when I was junior high age, so you're indeed lucky you knew your own soul. I went for "class clown" for awhile thinking that making them laugh intentionally was better than being laughed at. I think I was in my twenties before I began to truly treasure my weird.