Remember in junior high when all you really wanted out of
life was to fit in? You watched other kids to see what kind of clothes they
wore, how they did their hair, how they talked, etc. As a homeschooler, I was
especially interested in what “normal” kids did. I was really afraid of being
“weird.” I wanted to be normal and not stick out (Looking back at pictures,
it’s pretty obvious that goal was never realized. I stuck out. I was weird).
Now, I look at a world around me and I see what “normal” has
become. It is having a “dad bod,” living paycheck to paycheck, barely
tolerating a wife and kids (and avoiding them when possible), and doing the
bare minimum to get by so as to not get fired or divorced. It is counting down
the days until the next weekend or vacation when happiness can be found for a
few days or a week, and looking forward to the day when the kids are out of the
house and quitting the job for something called “retirement” is at least a
remote possibility. It is blaming all of life’s problems on a virus or a
politician, or better yet, a politician with a virus.
If this is “normal,” I want no part of it. The world is
bloated with “normal” and does not need any more normal. What it needs is
people willing to be rare and exceptional. People who will risk standing out
and being different in hopes of making this world a better place. It needs
people who can be weird, not for weirdness sake (sorry hipsters), but because a
new solution is required. We need people who are willing to be different, not because
different is guaranteed to work, but because the status quo is guaranteed to
not work. Our world needs a new kind of pioneer.
In a world that is screaming for conformity, do not work to
fit in. Work to stand out. Work to be weird. It may not be comfortable, but it
sure beats the alternative.
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