The Problem With Being Unique

I'm an extremely open and honest person. Appreciate individuality, respect differences, and treasure what makes yourself and other people special. These are things I live by, and to most people the concept sounds great. In practice, however, it's very lacking, not because of the philosophy behind it, but because people don't really adhere to it. People have always, as far back as I can remember, considered me "different". I didn't have a lot of friends growing up, but I didn't mind; I'd rather be myself and be alone, than be like the rest - the flock, if you please - and have what they called "friends". Having to pretend to be something other than who you are to make people like you, didn't really sound like having friends to me anyway. When I became a teenager, I finally got to know people who wanted to be my friends. I had changed nothing about how I expressed myself - I had simply found people that appreciated the person I was. This is how you make real friends, and 12 years later they're still my best friends. Over the years many things changed, and I was exposed to, if may be so immodest, quite the popularity surge. I don't think this was due to the fact that more people wanted to know me - they just wanted a deeper look at (what they considered) the "exotic" personality that I was. I'm from a small community, and figured that when I moved things would be different. That somewhere else I wouldn't be so different. I was wrong. I have moved, I am in a different place, and I still feel as alien as ever. It's like the very core of me, how I am made, what I was born of, and what nourishes me is just so fundamentally different to that of other people. No one has ever spared any expense informing me of this either: "I've never met anyone quite like you", "You're unlike anyone I've ever met", "You really are quite special, aren't you?", "You're just so different to everyone", and in some cases the good old "Freak", are all things people have told me for as long as I can remember. I always thought they were wrong, that fundamentally we're all the same. We are all human, after all. I was, perhaps, just more open and honest, more unafraid and raw. More human? After all these years, however, I'm starting to wonder. Maybe, just this once, about just this one thing, they were right and I was wrong. In my life, I've felt like Megan Fox's character Lily from the movie Passion Play. Like I was the bird woman at a circus carnival. There is one particularly powerful scene, where she goes to have her wings removed (which of course symbolizes her getting rid of her uniqueness). In comes Mickey Rourke's character to try to stop her, and she's like..

and he's all "You're not a freak, don't change yourself, you're special" and stuff, and she's like...

and I know how she feels. I've had people point out everything I "should" change about myself my entire life, and I'm like...

..pretending to be pondering what they tell me..

and then I'm like..

If it threatens your commonality, sorry. I'm not sorry.

I can't really care..

..and I don't have time for your negativity or jealousy.

So I'll keep talking about things that I find interesting and relevant..

..eating junk food..

..and just being me.

Because, I like myself..

..and listening to the bad things people who don't know me tell me is not going to get me anywhere.

So if you still have these toxic people in your life, you gotta be like..

Sayonara, bitches.

Because they aren't worth it. Don't be tempted to go soft and be all..

..because they're not when they're dishing out their "opinions".

So..

and be all..

Most importantly..

and..

As for me..

Adds a bit of fun to life, doesn't it?

..and I know a lot of people have opinions on that..

..I don't. Sorry. I'm not sorry.

I am me. I am more than good enough. I am just who I need to be. Sometimes though, even I need to remind myself of that. Hopefully, if anyone is reading this and feeling the same way, it also reminds you.

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Yours