Why be normal?

When I was in high school, I had a shirt that said Why be Normal? So, here I am 31 years old and being different is a GOOD thing.

Here's my thoughts....

Do you ever feel like an outcast or an outsider...in your own family? Like they are in a clique and you are not part of it? What's wrong with being different? What's wrong with living life differently than they do?

What's wrong with wanting financial peace?

What's wrong with despising credit?

What's wrong with enjoying exercise and being active?

What's wrong with not wanting to eat fast food?

What's wrong with not drinking soda or sweet tea, kool-aid or lemonade?

So what that I am not super skinny--*I* am beautiful in my own way--and I KNOW this. I don't need breast implants to be happy. I don't have to be super skinny to be happy either. My mom tells me all the time that I'd be pretty if I lost weight--something would look better on me if I lost 20#. I don't need her or anyone else to feel like I am loved. People wonder why we don't travel to visit our family more than we do now and this is why.

WE ARE DIFFERENT.

And you know what? We are okay with that! We don't feel welcome with our own family b/c we are so different from them--our way of thinking is so very different.

We visited family for the Easter holiday and we learned a lot while we were there. Feelings were hurt (mine) and no one seems to care (which isn't anything new). I've always been the Cinderella in my family. My mom's own BFF will tell you that. My sister (J) is the favorite, my sister (M) is the baby, and my brother (also an M) is the boy. But you know what? I'm learning to accept this and that it's OKAY. I will never be super skinny like J is and to my mom--that's all she cares about. She doesn't think of my boys--only herself. She doesn't keep toys at her house for my boys that they can play with outside--so we hear DS1 complain NONSTOP about how bored he is...and if you are a parent--this drives you nuts!!!

One day, they might see the light. They might see our way of thinking. But for now, it's okay that we are different. Right now, we are living like no one else so that later we can live like no one else.

I don't live my life to please my mom or any of my family for that matter. I live to please God and to serve him and my family. My husband and my boys mean the WORLD to me. I go to sleep thinking of them and I wake up thinking of them. They are my life. Behind God--they come first. I strive to make them happy--to be a good mom and an even better wife.

So...what's wrong with being different?

N-O-T-H-I-N-G!!!

Tell me--are YOU different from those closest to you?