Embrace Your Uniqueness: Self-Acceptance Journey

Growing up, I always felt like a square peg in a round hole. Actually, more like a Lego block stuck in a vacuum—loud, colorful, and guaranteed to annoy someone. I mean my own mom coined me with "Little Commando"...

I was the loud and bossy little girl who didn’t quite fit in- and trust me, I hated it. Raised in a Bible college town, my childhood was like one long awkward icebreaker game nobody wanted to play. My mom was a single parent pursuing her pastorate- which was basically unheard of at the time and almost scandalous. She was the first woman at her school to do it. Then there was the whole “dad thing.” I didn’t know him, which made me stand out even more. Oh, and did I mention I was fun-sized? (That’s short, but candy-bar marketing makes it sound cuter.) Not only was I fun sized I was a bit rounder than some of the other kiddo's- we all know how fun that is! The final cherry on top, we were broke. Dirt broke. Like, no-car-until-I-was-10 broke. My legs had more mileage than a used Honda Civic. Translation: I showed up to every school function with a giant “different” sticker slapped on my forehead.

In the conservative 80s, I was basically society’s opposite. Believe it or not the girls were encouraged to be soft-spoken and dainty- however I was on the playground running recess like a Fortune 500 company. I’d organize the neighborhood kids, assign jobs, and take on bullies like a tiny WWE wrestler. Did I pay dearly for it? Oh yes. Let’s just say I learned you can only fight a bigger bully to try and prove a point- he proved his point better.

But here’s the thing: all that loud bossiness? It was actually preparing me to take charge later in life. Who knew my recess dictatorship would eventually turn into leadership skills?

Now that I’m older (and allegedly wiser), I’ve toned it down a notch or ten... Age has a funny way of smoothing out the rough edges—kind of like sandpaper, but with more back pain. The 80s are long gone, but being loud doesn’t seem so bad anymore. Because here’s the truth: we’re all weird. Every single one of us. The trick is to own it.

So let’s just be who God made us to be and not give one hoot what other people think. (Okay fine—maybe half a hoot. We’re human after all.)