You’re going to experience something that all generations have experienced before you: peers. I’m not talking about peer pressure, because that shit is way over-blown. If you have any common sense, which I’m betting you’ll probably have some, then you won’t have to worry about peer pressure—in an effort to clarify, only stupid people try to convince people to do stupid things.
What I mean is searching for acceptance, or maybe just being comfortable with the acceptance you have already acquired. Kids are all stupid. It’s not their fault, or your fault for that matter, you’re just young and stupid. I was, and every adult I have ever known and ever will know was, at some point in their lives, horribly stupid. It has something to do with not knowing anything about the world and the people living on it. Don’t feel bad, this passes right around the time you die, but only if you’re incredibly lucky.
So you’re a little weird. Honestly, it’s too early to tell if you’re weird right now, but you seem normal. Just in case, if you are weird when you read this, I am covering my bases. But let’s assume you’re weird, mainly because the title of my blog wouldn’t make sense if you aren’t; it’s about me, after all. It’s perfectly normal to be weird. Like I said before, everyone sucks when they’re young, and at some point every parent ratifies the same supposition.
I love picking my nose. I can almost, despite having the actual experience of doing so, equate it to liberating a terribly oppressed population of under-fed unicorns. There’s something magical about it and I’m never changing my ways, and at this point it’s too late anyway. But there has been hundreds, if not thousands of situations that I’ve found myself hiding or getting caught my nose-picking habit. Everyone does it, but somehow I always get caught. So I look like a weirdo. But the truth is that I am saving a population of the oppressed; just don’t eat other people’s boogers.
I have my flaws, so does your mom. So do your grandparents. We have all lived with them, and eventually learned to embrace them. We don’t change, we learn to accept who we are. We all grow into ourselves, and it’s perfectly okay for you to be different, enjoy different things, make different decisions, wear different clothes, do your hair differently, or a variety of other plausible scenarios. You are exactly who you are, and that’s incredible.
Over the last 21 months or so your mother and I have said hundreds of times how incredible you are. Your head is big, but it looks good. You dance. Oh man, you move. You’ve got the rhythm. You ask for help by saying “TAH” and hand us things. You touch everything and your curiosity should be celebrated, but sometimes you’re trying to grab sharp shit or going to break something. Otherwise we let you explore. You’re turning out to be better than either your mother or myself, and that’s the only thing any parent could ever want.
So even if you end up being a little weird when you get older, man, we’re so proud of you. We want you to
be weird; we want you to be yourself. When I was younger, nobody told me what being yourself meant. I didn’t know how to be myself. So here’s the big secret that I learned much later: just do what you like and take care of other people. It’s that simple. Do whatever you want, all the time, as long as you’re taking care of people.
I’ll address taking care of people at a later date, but basically don’t be a dick. Every single person you’ll ever meet is living life through their own goggles. They see things different because they are different, but like I mentioned before, that’s a good thing. Everyone is the protagonist to their own stories, and you don’t want to be the antagonist, the villain to anyone’s story. You should not be. You cannot be. But, live life, son. Have a blast as often as you can.
And if some little bastard gives you a hard time, let’s talk about it. Just tell me what’s going on in your life and I’ll tell you why that kid sucks and you should ignore him. Then I’ll meet him in the playground after school and beat his ass.