One night several years back, I found myself in a heated debate (otherwise known as nonsense) over a concept in a movie with my then boyfriend, now ex (emphasis on “ex”). He got to a standstill in his point and out of frustration he powered up an insult, locked and loaded…
“You are a…you are a…”, as he searched for the right words to lash out, I thought, count to ten…breathe…this is going to be a doozy.
Then he unloaded…”You are a…WEIRDO”.
Now trust me, I’ve been called way worse, but something about this name calling rocked me to my core. The girl that grew up with the penguin poster of one penguin in a sea of penguins wearing a bow tie, proclaiming “I gotta be me, I just gotta be me”, Sinatra style.
At first I took the bait, and adamantly denied it, despite the artist and the entrepreneur in me of almost thirty five years. Why would I deny this?! My mind raced to defend and my heart immediately felt like I was betraying my best friend. Because I was. Myself. Even after all these years of being on the planet I still want so badly to fit in, to be accepted. To be accepted by this person who truly didn’t see my uniqueness or if he did he was threatened by it. As Brene Brown puts it so well in her amazing book, Braving the Wilderness, we want so badly to fit in instead of belonging. And therein lies a huge difference.
In hindsight, I would have laughed and said, “why yes, you noticed! I am a weirdo! And thank you for noticing!” The favor he did me was that I got curious about myself and about our too quick to judge polarized culture we live in. Remember when cool (another name for weirdo) meant different and proud, not all of us wearing someone’s logo and same clothes and shoes? I began asking myself what makes one a weirdo? I think the best answer to this is a quote from Bette Midler, “Cherish forever what makes you unique, ‘cuz you’re really a yawn if it goes”.
His name calling took me down the rabbit hole to figure out who I was unapologetically, defiantly and courageously and that I didn’t owe it to anyone else to defend or explain my weirdo-ness.
What makes you such a weirdo?
What are you craving? What are you denying that is dying to come out and play and be goofy or silly? That is the golden thread to follow in each of us. In other words, what makes you uniquely you? And to take this golden thread and weave it into the bigger picture of your life. To stay focused on that thread because that thread is the needle in the haystack of what gives your life uniqueness, authenticity and meaning.
I mean, let’s face it, everybody’s a train wreck in their own special way. And as Whoopi Goldberg put it so well, normal is only a cycle on a washing machine. And after these past two years, is ‘normal’ even on our radar anymore?!
This journey is uniquely yours and no one else’s. So the path has to be yours. Instead of thinking differences in the world or another, we have never been in a better time to co-create together a world of setting our souls free instead of “fitting in”…
So what makes you a weirdo? What inspires you? Afterall, we’re only here for awhile, so let’s be here fully… in love with life, ourselves, others and most of all, to enjoy the journey.
So, I’m going to say it…You are a weirdo,
Nancy + Team Sweet Bird