Passing for Normal is Over-Rated

I’ve been trying to fit in since my dad taught me, when I was about 5 years old, that the bullies leave you alone if you refuse to react to them.

While that did work to get the bullies to leave me alone (I wasn’t entertaining when I was all “stone-faced”), it didn’t help me fit in at all.

I remained unable to pretend to be normal.

In fact, I used “weird” as a badge of honor.

There were people, when I was in college, who tried to convince me that I should self-label as “quirky” instead of “weird,” because “weird” implies “not normal,” while “quirky” implies “strange in a good way.”

But to me, someone quirky is upbeat, fun, easygoing.

I’m too serious, too intense, too intellectual to be merely quirky.

Weird fits me better, even though it is less socially acceptable.

I’ve never fit in. I’ve never made sense to my peers.

I’ve always had better relationships with people significantly older than me.

But I wouln’t be able to do what I do if I were “normal.” I wouldn’t understand systems well enough to simplify them for entrepreneurs and small business owners. I wouldn’t have had to study human behavior, body language, and psychology well enough to plan effective marketing strategies. I wouldn’t have the breadth of knowledge that allows me to engage in multi-disciplinary business strategizing.

My differences are my superpower.

Your differences are your superpowers.