You'll Have to Come.

All you can be is you cause
You're real and not this plastic type
But reality sets and
You're stuck in this plastic life.

Somewhere between the moment I get out of bed (or the subsequent 5 minutes it takes for me to truly be awake) and when I put on my pants is my daily awakening. Everyday I wake up and wonder if this will be the day I conform and try to fit in ... and everyday I decide that it won't be.

"To be great is to be misunderstood." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Being part of the in-crowd is a good feeling. I can say that I share that feeling 70% of the time. However, being misunderstood seems to always befall me. As much as I want to believe that has no bearing on my life, I can't.

To not be understood is a disease. It makes others around you wary of really knowing you. It makes you feel like something is wrong with you. In essence, it tears you apart from the inside because you actually sit and wonder why you couldn't be just a tad bit ... normal.

The way that I think is different than most. Heck, we all think different ways. I may attack a problem from a different angle than my neighbor; this does not make either of us "weird".

Where I tend to find the difference between myself and my peers is how I act.

I don't let anything back. I am me, unabridged, with no fear of what someone may think of me. Since I'm not running for a Presidential campaign, I don't have to walk a tightline. Apparently though, that's the thing to do. We're all boxed in and can't seem to genuinely accept the differences in each other as good.

I will not apologize for my intelligence. For my individual style. For my taste in music. For my mannerisms. For my moods. For anything that is me, I will never apologize.

I will apologize for you, for the way you perceive me.

I found another quote that I love:

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away. - Henry David Thoreau