Badassery Magazine June2017 Issue | Page 15

I know, I know. Weird title. Just let me explain, mmkay? I want you to go out on a limb for me and think back to high school. I know, it’s scary, just bear with me. Were you popular or did you want to be? Did you want to be friends with the popular girls (or guys) and “fit in” with everyone? Even if you didn’t care, I’m sure you knew someone who did. Someone who wasn’t quite “good enough” for the popular crowd for one stupid reason or another but they desperately wanted to be. Maybe their clothes weren’t trendy enough or their hair wasn’t on-point. There could be a lot of reasons why they didn’t fit the mold. That was me for sure except I didn’t want to fit in with the popular girls. I was smart enough to know I never would and I knew that it wasn’t everything but……… I wanted to be one of the misfits. Yeah, you heard me right. I wanted to be in with the Goths, the punks, the artists, the cre- ative types, the ones that could draw, paint, sing, and play the “cool” instruments like guitars and drums, the ones with pierc- ings and tattoos, and clothes made from hemp. That’s what I wanted. But it didn’t happen for me. Not even close. I had parents that didn’t ap- prove of tattoos or piercings and I didn’t have the money for Hot Topic or Habitat. I wasn’t good enough for the popular crowd or the misfits. I was kinda drifty and on my own most of the time. Truth is I have felt this way my entire life, even as an adult. I have never felt like I fit in any- where or with anyone until now, at nearly thirty years of age. Why, you ask? I’m gonna tell you why! I spent so much time worried about what everyone else thought and I was too busy trying to fit into a mold that someone else thought of that I totally missed that fact that I was and still am totally unique and cool and amazing and a total misfit (I mean that in the most positive way, believe me!) I wasted years of my life totally unaware of how awesome I 12