Being 'Not Weird'

Don't get too used to weekend posts, y'hear? I need them to catch up.

So this weekend, I went to two Yoruba weddings (on the same day! Dudettes, I was POOPED!) and thus came the massive topic of 'hair'. And what to do with mine.

To avoid any more arguments, and because I hadn't really made an effort since I expected to still be wearing the braids, I wore a scarf.

I was really mad at some things that had been said and it made me think about negative and positive things.

When you hang out with people who think the same way you do, you don't even think about how your mutual interests are odd. It's only when you go to 'the outside world' that you have to consider these things.

So I thought of five things we can do to prevent 'not-weird-people' from stopping us from doing things like knitting, growing a beard, being a gamer (and not just the Final Fantasy series) dancing in the street or having natural hair:

• If everybody else is doing what it is not-weird, then at the not-weird meetings, you will not get any cookies, because there's so many people. Eating up all the cookies.
  However, in the weird/kooky/freaks/oddity group, there are less of us. So that's less people eating cookies. Therefore, MORE COOKIES FOR US! Whooooo!
  
  
• I used to think there had to be a time limit on how long people had to act no-weird (don't judge me). But apparently, you must be not-weird 24/8 (even when you sleep!). I don't know about you, but I have a very short attention span.
  
  So that just wouldn't roll. You get me?
  
• Being not-weird must get very tiring - the list of things that are weird seems to grow everyday and change depending on your circumstances. Like, what may be appropriate for a 19 year old may not be appropriate when you hit 21, or 60 and vice-versa (thrice?).

Either this helped you or it didn't (I'm betting on the latter). But it's so easy to let other people's opinions change the way you see yourself.

Look at yourself as a whole, because it's the whole that makes you unique.

One of Gandhi's fundamentals was "Nobody can hurt me without my permission."

The way you react to somebody's actions towards you is your own choice. You can decide to flip out over people finger wagging over what you do, or you can laugh or walk away.

That's not to mean it might not hurt. I mean, we're human. But you can choose how far you let that hurt take you. Do you storm off, kicking tables and chairs over, screaming at the top of your voice about vengeance, wrath and raining fire and brimstone?

Whaddaya mean yes?? *backs away from you*

Eleanor Roosevelt said "You can never really live anyone else's life, not even your child's. The influence you exert is through your own life, and what you've become yourself."

No-one else can force you to do someone thing. You can resist! It's your life!

My goodness. I feel a song coming on...:

Anyhoo... *re-arranges self* At the end of the day, when it comes down to it, you cannot blame somebody for the life you end up living. We are all responsible for our own actions, and our lives will never exactly mirror any body else's - so by all means, use them for inspiration, but trying to emulate people may wind up a fruitless venture.

Do you. If that involves copying people, fine. Because in the end, it's down to you.

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