A Beard Across A’Manifesto
How and Why I Am Me
Going through the traditional American school system, I never felt I was doing what I really should. Not that I was an asshole kid, I was actually a very well behaved youngster*, but I wasn’t learning or experiencing what really mattered in life. Learning the ABC’s in elementary school was great, getting a locker in middle school was pretty sweet, and choosing my own classes in high school wasn’t bad, but where were the real experiences? The life lessons? The motor skills I would need to take my life by the horns?
“Tyler always figured if it was one of his friend’s parents, why couldn’t he give them a hug?!”
*One of the only parent-teacher conferences I’ve ever had was in elementary school. My teacher wanted to let my mom know that some of my friend’s parents were uncomfortable when they would pick up their kids because I would run up and give them hugs. To this day, that story is still one of my mom’s favorites to tell.
Elementary school might be too young for me to expect anything of substantial value, besides the basic building blocks, but it really gets out of hand in middle school and high school. I found myself becoming less-and-less interested in what was being taught due to the fact I felt more like I was there to jump through six periods of teacher’s hoops rather than study for and pass their tests. Hell, I think there is a better chance of passing if you’re better at the prior than the latter.
So, I found myself “manipulating” the system, lowering how much I needed to study and instead focusing sucking up to each teacher to make them happy in order to pass each school year’s set of hoops.
The Downfall.
Once I graduated high school, did some interning, then got a “real job” as a Front-End Web Developer. I found myself in the same bureaucratic bullshit I was facing in high school. Only this time, the quality of my hoop jumping would affect my livelihood, where before it was just practice. I was jumping through hoops just to make the higher ups happy… again.
I had developed no real ability to think for myself. I was so used to doing everything I had been told to do, instead of learning how to figure things out for myself. I lost the ability to wipe my own ass. I was left bland and uninspiring. I had no passion in life and even if I did no real means to make that passion a reality.
The schooling system had done exactly what it seemed to have been put in place to do: Teach me how to kiss ass and kiss ass well; for I would need it when faced with the asses of the corporate world.
There Is Hope.
Many of us have gone through or are still living the experience I described above, whether you realize it and want to admit it or not.
Fortunately, there are other people out there who feel the same as us. The Unmistakable Misfits. We are the doers, lovers, shakers and movers that don’t kiss ass. We’ve realized we don’t want to work with the people who want us to kiss ass and have taken the proper actions to stay away from them.
We have realized we have a voice and it needs to be heard.
Our ideas need to come to fruition for our society and those that follow. Our minds are set on making the world a better place. We are tired of being complacent and doing as we’ve been taught our whole lives. That time is over. It’s time to find what really makes us happy & healthy and what will make others happy & healthy. Then do it.
Let’s build an eco-system that can support those changes. One that is less focused on the change it puts in our pockets and more it introduces to the world. Progress first, profit second.
How You Will Know This Is For You.
You are the change you want to see. You want to have the adventure of a lifetime. Follow an idea to the edges. And keep going. Forgo tradition. Trust YOUR instincts. Be who you are. Let your natural creativity and curiosity be your guide. Commit to meaningful bodies of work. Leave a dent in the universe [in this lifetime].
You want to make a life not a living. To think for yourself. And to let your journey unfold so that others may benefit. To create legendary stories. Have more fun. Redefine freedom, anytime and anyplace. Leave a bigger legacy.
You value authenticity. Engage action. And whole process learning. Altruism & self-actualization. Idealism. Activism. Globalism. Ecology. And spirituality.
You are a creator, leader, mentor, giver, doer and all around Unmistakable Misfit.
