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I’m Just a Little Bit Off

And I think I like it that way

Christopher Robin
Age of Empathy
5 min readDec 30, 2024

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artwork by author

In first-grade math, my teacher passed out a sheet of simple addition problems. I knew how to do the math, but I was unsure of the formatting. I distinctly remember being anxious about where to put my answer.

Chances are we were shown where, but I didn’t remember. So I took a shot and put the answer on top of the line beside the problem.

looks good to me. maths by author

My answers were correct but in the wrong way. My graded paper came back looking like my teacher bled out after gouging her own eyes out after seeing what I had done.

This pretty much sums up my entire life. Everything I’ve ever done feels like I’m playing catch-up, or like I’m not quite seeing what others see. It’s like I’m constantly missing some critical detail that everyone else inherently understands or didn’t get the same memo as everyone else.

Maybe I was always thinking about something else and missed some instructions, or maybe my mind just works differently. The world has always felt 45° off for me — as if I’m vaguely going in the same direction, but not quite. I have a feeling lots of people feel this way.

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Age of Empathy
Age of Empathy

Published in Age of Empathy

We publish high-quality personal essays, humor essays, and writer interviews. Our goal is to provide a place for experienced writers to share authentic stories and connect with others, collectively celebrating a common passion, striving toward an age of empathy.

Christopher Robin
Christopher Robin

Written by Christopher Robin

Not like the other girls. Recovering alcoholic, humorist, contemplatist, essayist, averagest, editor of my own reality.

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