We’re All Freaks

I wrote this note for future consideration a little over a week ago.

Here’s a lesson I learned from a young age:

If you feel weird, if you feel different, GOOD.
Embrace it.
The world has enough normal.
It does you no good, and the world no good, for you to be anything but yourself.

And the lesson I learned as an adult:

You are just like everyone else —
they just won’t let you know,
because they feel like freaks.

We’re all freaks. We’re all perfectly weird. And that’s beautiful.

I needed to post this today because over this last week, I have felt very stuck. I sat down to write this entry a few days ago and just froze, sitting here until I was filled with agitation, until I couldn’t take it anymore and just needed to find something else to do. The idea of writing anything was paralyzing because I was afraid of how it would be received. From talking with my friend and coach today, I realized that I was struggling with this exact issue — feeling out of place, strange, a freak — and thought it fitting that I post this note, for myself and anyone else who is feeling this way.

Be well, all.
– Ryan