How I Turned my Biggest Weakness into my Greatest Strength
The thing that sets you apart is the thing that sets you above
I didn’t ask for this.
At one point I would have given just about anything to throw away whatever set me apart. I didn’t want it. It was a curse — an albatross hung around my neck for not being like everyone else.
You could say my early teen years were difficult.
In junior high and high school, we all learn soon enough that the only way to survive is to walk, dress and talk like everyone else. We dare not deviate, because the price of being different is being alone.
Only, I never got that memo, and I didn’t have the faculties to understand how to be like everyone else. And I paid the price.
What’s it like being alone in Middle School? Let me tell you.
I remember I had to find ways to pass the time during lunch. Lunch! That’s the best time of the day, and an opportunity to socialize with your friends — if you had any.
Since I didn’t, my goal was to stay off the radar of the little assholes who demonstrated allegiance to the group by shunning the other, lest they be cast as the mutant. So my goal was to try to be less of a target. I’d eat my lunch privately, and then…
