The Emancipation of Me

You want to know what? I love being me!!! I mean I ABSOLUTELY LOVE being me!!!

I mean yeah sure there is many a time that I wish I wasn't dealing with chronic pain - every single day of my life. There are times - very few - times that I wish that I wasn't dealing with the struggle of dealing with a disability and living life with an immune system that can't seem to keep the littlest bug out...

But on the whole I love my life and I love being me... Some awesome things are: I get great parking (gotta love that disability parking sticker!) and I get money from the government for just being disabled (seriously I love Australia!! The disability pension is such a help).

Most of all I love the absolute freedom to just let my hair down and just be me... I am a weirdo.. SERIOUSLY!! I am a quirky little nerd who lives with her head in the clouds - and I love it.

I'm so ecstatic with life... I am emancipated from society's expectations!! People who see me walking (well, more accurately limping slightly) down the street would never really expect me to be who I am - a really quirky nerd who reads, writes, blogs, paints, works and studies. There is such a freedom in that - I can be and do whatever I want to do.

My best friend can up with a catch phrase to help define me if you will and it is exactly what I am...

I am not bound by the constraints of normality!

I am not, nor have I ever been, normal... I was counted out of that race the minute I was disabled. But instead of trying to fight this - fighting to fit in - I have decided to just be exactly who I am. No worry about pretense or trying to fit into a certain mold... I'm just me - as you are just you.

I've got to tell you once I accepted that I was different - that knowledge was like a breath of fresh air, so freeing, so relaxing. I have had the awesome chance to just relax into myself. So what if I'm different - EVERYONE IS DIFFERENT!! EVERYONE IS UNIQUE!! I just enjoy it a little more...

So anyways, the reason for this post is to tell you all about how I celebrated my emancipation from society's expectations and how I expressed to the whole world that I am happy with who I am... I got a tattoo!! Here's a picture of it...


And I positively love my tattoo. Because whenever I feel like I should be fitting in I just look at my wrist and I'm reminded that I'm 'Usually Unusual' - well, a good friend of mine quite rightfully pointed out that I'm always unusual but that didn't sound as good!

The point is I'm done trying to fit in; trying to be normal. As one of my sappy movies says "Why are you trying so hard to fit in when you're born to stand out?'

From this point on I'm going to just be me; not caring what other people think of me; not worrying if I'm dressed right; not stressing over if I'm going to the cool places or listening to the 'right' bands. I chose to fully embrace who I am...


I am...

a nerd
a hippy
a daydreamer
a poet
a thinker
a student
a painter
a lover of Literature
a writer
a photographer
an oddity
a bibliophile
a passionate pursuer of LIFE
a (wannabe) world traveler
an all round quirky person
a blogger
A WEIRDO!!

And I love it!!

So what about you? Embrace all that YOU are for there is only one you in this world and the world would be so much duller without you in it!! Enlighten me, who are you?