"you're Different"

This final line: "What prompts people calling me different is probably because I don't fit a "mainstream" mold. Being "mainstream" anything is in itself a form of stereotyping." Says it all for the story itself. Because no matter what if you appear/seem different in the eyes of others, they'll mark you out with a black marker and design a special target in you, for they fear differentiation than what's being portrayed in their environment and sociality.



People tend to forget about being themselves and the definition of being real instead of fake, posing as others so you can fit in their world.

Being unique in a cookie cutter world is a good thing.

Only my immediate family and I are like this, I guess you could say we are all good actors: at fitting in. Introverts with extroverted skills.

Now I finally get who I am....i just thought i was unliked. I feel better now.

how bad is it when even my mama called me 'different' as a little kid!? these days i embrace it. i go by eccentric/eclectic!

i enjoyed this so much.. i felt like i could've written it myself!! :)

lol

I've had the "different" tag, too :) Viva la difference sums it up very nicely, I think :)

i haven't ever fit in any place. my family i probably never will. I'm staring to be OK with that, trying to embrace my uniqueness or something like that. lol

Sounds like a very good different to me...nothing wrong with that. exactly:)

I can relate and that's the best explanation I've heard! Way to go!

its an emoticon world now.... wait, there are five? I AM different. lol

cashews!

Hard to believe, but I've never fit in; never been one of the crowd, no matter how much I tried as a youngster. I remember feeling particularly bitter - maybe after nobody came to my 16th birthday party - and perhaps to rationalise the pain or perhaps an insight, I accepted my difference and decided to glorify my difference, rather than to beat myself up over it. I did have my moments after that and still do to this day, but I would prefer to be a non-conformist, than to conform to a society that I grow more and more disaffected with. Even at my advanced age, I look for belonging, but when I look at the cost, reject it.

well said zhafar. Thanks for reading my post. btw just wait until one of the "younger" folk tell you to "un-bunch dude." lol.



Experience takes as long as it takes.

I have often said that" I'm a dinosuar". Ironically, because of my responses,here, in this medium, several younger folks have reached out to me. I love this medium. It allows us to speak the" real deal". There is no replacement for actual experience, and that may require alittle time. I have made every mistake one can make, but it took alittle time. Carry on!

thanks all, maybe I'm not so different after all..... lol.



Emptyroads, yes, I am familiar with Sartre, had my own existential period many years ago.



Good comments and suggestions all, thanks for reading the post.

I think I agree. Society is becoming more straight-laced, and as you get older, there are more expectations for you to fit in, or at least - appear to fit in :)



I'm very much a non-conformist, and many of the best people do not spend their lives struggling to find some kind of compromise with society - quite the opposite; they shape the world around them.



I've lately been inspired with Sartre's existentialism, and would recommend you read him out if you ever find yourself concerned about others thinking you don't fit in.