"Mom, I'm weird." I cringed when I heard my son say these words.
"Don't say that!"
"Oh no, Mom, I'm okay with being weird. It means I'm not just like everyone else."
Wow. What insight for a ten year old! And the more I think about it, the more I agree. Who wants to be a carbon copy of everyone else? Okay, a lot of people do. It's what we spend hours doing every day, isn't it? Trying to conform, to be like our friends when we're young. Sometimes even when we're not-so-young.
What a bold statement, a brave one. I'm pretty sure he won't always feel that way. But I hope it doesn't take him as long as it has me to truly embrace being "different", "odd", "peculiar", "not like us"; all words I've heard used to describe me.
In the words of Dr Seuss:
"Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You." (From "Happy Birthday to YOU")
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