Don’t Be Afraid to be different

I grew up homeschooled. I’m a christian. I don’t plan on going to college. I wrote a book when I was 18. And I am a huge geek. I say all this to make that point that my life hasn’t been exactly normal. I’m pretty weird by most standards for people my age. Thanks to the way I was raised I’ve been able to develop a lot of self-confidence.

So often our society sees different people as a bad thing. Being homeschooled I’ve met a lot of different people. I’ve found that the more unique and different you are the more interesting you become.

Being different has never bothered me. I think I used to want to be the same as other kids a little bit when I was little. But as I grew up I realized. I would never be the same as other girls and I didn’t care to be. I didn’t care about boys or makeup. Boys are a bit more interesting now but makeup is still not overly exciting. I realized that the people who acted the same as everyone else seemed to fade into the back ground.

Don’t be afraid of being different. Be afraid of being the same as everyone else.

High school is almost all about fitting in it seems. Especially for girls. To be popular you have to have the right clothes, the right shoes or bag. The problem is you then become just like everyone else. It becomes hard to tell people apart. There is this thing called “twinzies” it’s when two people wear the exact same outfit to school or such. Sometimes people make that a goal. That seems silly to me. Everyone is different and unique why would you want to be exactly the same as everyone else? That seems ridiculous to me!

I get the feeling of wanting to belong to a group but at some point, you become a part of the background when you act the same and look the same as every other person your age.

I’ve never exactly fit in with a lot of groups. So instead I learned to create and lead a group of my own. I picked friends who liked me for me and didn’t mind my quirks. I found other people who admired my style but didn’t feel like they had to copy it to be my friend. In this group, there were and are people who admired their style too. There was always a balance.

See I don’t want to be the same as everyone else. I have different life goals than even a lot of my close high school friends. Why on earth would I want to look the same and act the same as someone who is completely different from me? It’s only logical for me to act different and be different because we are two different people. Two different destinies. I’m not going to college like almost every other person my age because if I want to become something they aren’t trying to become I have to do something they aren’t doing.

So I refuse to be the same. I like being different because people notice. Plus life is a lot harder when you try to be someone you weren’t meant to be.

So I would really encourage you! Don’t be afraid to be different. Don’t be afraid to be a nerd! Don’t be afraid to be kind or to stand up for someone who is being bullied! Don’t be afraid to stand for what you believe in or have your own style! Don’t be afraid to be weird. Be afraid of being exactly the same as everyone else. Because that’s when you fade into the background. That’s when no one will notice you. That’s when you become indistinguishable from the person next to you.

Nobody wants that. We all deep down inside want to be noticed.

Different people get noticed.