Do you ever feel like a square peg in a round hole? I know I do.
My experiences and ideas and voice are anything but normal and I don't conform to what I've been told I should do. I just do what I do and that's that. I appreciate the life I've been given and the life I've lived. I don't always understand why things happen the way they do, but I'm sure it'll all make sense one day. I try not to play the what-if game too often because spoiler alert: you always lose.
But it is interesting to me. It's interesting to me that I haven't found a full-time job with benefits or that I haven't ever lived alone or that I haven't gotten married or had babies. I feel so very far away from a lifestyle that so many in my generation seem to be running to--or from. If there's one thing I know, it is that I am in no way shape or form alone in my life of the lone wolf.
The 21st century has cultivated a generation of millennials who have opportunities that previous generations never had (or never thought they had) before. We don't have to take the first job we get right out of school and stay with that same job in that same location for 40 years. We don't have to get married and get settled as soon as possible to find some sort of "everlasting happiness" or general life stability or do it just because everybody else is.
We don't have to.
And we don't want to.
I am a good writer. I am funny. I seek out positivity in the world and try to spread it through those two avenues. My currency is my humor. My personality. My positivity. My uniqueness. My ability to communicate. My currency has value.
What is your currency?
What makes you feel alive and gives you worth? What sets you apart so that you can be seen? What are you hiding that you so desperately want to show?
I keep a copy of Amy Poehler's book, YES PLEASE, next to my bed. I tried to put it on the bookshelf just a few steps away, but even that was too far. I need it next to me. I need it near to give me comfort and a boost of confidence and to feel like I'm not alone.
Early on in her amazing whimsical and wisdom-filled piece of brilliance, she talks about the plain girl vs. the demon. She goes on to say, "If you are lucky, there is a moment in your life when you have some say as to what your currency is going to be. Decide what your currency is early. Let go of what you will never have. People who do this are happier and sexier".
Amy talks about her own struggles with this and it's a remarkable thing to feel so akin to someone you so greatly admire and look up to. She is a successful woman in her 40's and still struggles with owning her currency and fighting her demons. God, I love her.
Welcome the challenges you face in life as opportunities and journey's. Don't hide away from who you are or conform to what you're not. We'll all get it figured it out...eventually. And even if we don't, none of us make it out alive anyway.
So know your worth, find value in your currency and power in your voice.