Weirdo

I was for sure the girl dressed as batman in a world of princesses. In the first grade, I used to sit in class bored cutting my own hair off.  My teacher was thrilled.  While most girls were into pastels and dancing, I was too busy sprinting past all the boys and adding to my collection of bruises.  While most kids played house, I was choreographing music videos and sketches to perform for anyone who would watch.  Anyone.  I like to blare music while I’m cleaning or doing dishes or cooking and sing along at the top of my lungs.  9 times out of 10, it’s a Broadway musical.  I think truffles smell like a dirty brothel and if I could drink any beer on the planet, it would be a Coors Light.  What can I say?-I’m a cheap date.  I’m a certified, self-aware weirdo and I’m okay with it.

I am convinced a flamingo is my spirit animal and I don’t even like the color pink.  I thought the song Send me on my Way by Rusted Root was Sammy and the Whale until 2010.  I know you’re all singing it in your head…sounds good my way doesn’t it?  I haven’t eaten red meat since 2008…and probably won’t ever again.  I’m a vegan three months of the year.  I’m not a crazy judgy vegan, please enjoy your steak.  Half of my kitchen cabinets are filled with clothes I haven’t worn since high school and winter jackets.  Why?  I have saffron that I’m waiting to use for the “perfect meal”.  I don’t even know what that means.

I’m the 1% of people who live in LA who don’t have a car.  I had a car when I lived in Chicago though, so that makes sense.  When I was a little girl, I used to put white-out in my hair and pretend I was Rogue.  I can get so lost in a good book.  I’m talking total book nerd, nose to the pages in a corner in the midst of a very loud party lost.  I use coupons at the grocery store.  I’m that girl.  I talk to myself…a lot.

I have always been a little different.  My path hasn’t been what anyone would call normal.  While most people my age are paying off mortgages and preparing for baby #3, I’m still searching for a career that inspires me and makes me happy.  I never saw myself as a cubicle kind of girl.  I’d probably look as comfortable as Trump pacing the debate floor.  But just because my life hasn’t followed the typical script or because it’s not what you may find acceptable doesn’t make it less real or mine.

I worry a large amount of my youth was spent trying to fit in and be like everyone else when I should have been more focused on all things ME.  I wish I would have shut out trends, ignored how everyone else was doing it, and let my own opinion reign supreme.  As a society, we tend to frown upon anything outside of the norm when we should be glorifying it.  Back in the day, left handers were forced to learn how to write with their right hand.  Insanity!  My older brother had a t-shirt that said ‘Everyone is born left handed.  You become right handed after you commit your first sin.’  He was obviously left handed and I spent the majority of my life wishing I was too.

We have to embrace what’s different.  We have to be accepting of what we may not consider typical.  There is absolutely nothing intriguing to me about being surrounded by people who look, think, and do the same things.  Yawn.  Next!  Being weird is why I am an artist and why I excel in the things I do.  I think differently, I see things differently.  I would be more offended by someone saying “you’re vanilla” than if they stared at me appalled as if I were a one-eyed monster and muttered “weirdo” under their breath.  To that I say, bring on the weird.