Friday, June 01, 2012

Genuine

Recently, I have been noticing how much I love being with people who are genuinely themselves and naturally a little eccentric. I don't know how to explain it, but since I have always felt a need to conform or change myself to fit the general direction of "cool," I get such joy out of meeting people who don't worry about that, people who are comfortable enough just to be themselves.

One of these people is a girl I work with at school. She's in 3rd grade. She is always wearing some big and loud earrings like feathers, bright pink hoops, or fake pearl clip-ons as big as her eyes. She also wears skirts and boots. She wears her emotions on her sleeves (which is sometimes problematic in 3rd grade) and she gets pretty excited about simple things.

The other Friday, she said to me, "I'm so excited for the end of school because I have something awesome in my backpack."
"Cookies?" I guessed.
"No," she responded with a sparkly smile.
"I brought high-heeled shoes that I'm going to put on as soon as school is out."
And she was serious, and I have no doubt those shoes went on as soon as the bell rang.

Another unique person I admire is my neighbor who has a fohawk. Yep, a fohawk. I don't even know the exact definition of what that means, but it's apparently like a mini mohawk. This same neighbor also wears silk vests,. . . frequently. He also swing dances and has joined a Quidditch league. Yep, genuinely unique.

The other person I really respect for his genuine uniqueness is my brother. He calls it like he sees it. He's real with me. I know that he will tell me what he's thinking (which occasionally disturbs me, but is usually insightful). I assume he's like this with other people too; it's pretty refreshing, and in a world where so much pretense seems to go into every move, I'm thankful for my brother and the other people in my life who give me good examples of what it means to be true to one's self.

3 comments:

Drew and Rachel said...

gaaaa I need to email you.

Anonymous said...

Love your thoughts! Yes, you are right ~ genuine, authentic is rare in this day. Thanks for inspiring me to be myself. :)

Mom

Unknown said...

"This above all--to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man." HAMLET Act I, Scene 3
Say what?