You're Different! (09/06/20)

“They told me I was different. That was the best compliment I ever received.”

I was not a normal kid. Understand I was not necessarily a “troubled” kid, but I was not what the average kid was for the schools I went to. I was obsessed with art, obsessed even more with architecture, both from an extremely early age, and I mean 4ish that I can remember.

My Mom bought me several boxes of American Bricks and I built everything within my imagination. I would get up at 4 or 5 am, go out to the living, sit on the floor and build. She soon began photographing the buildings I made, since they changed every morning. I still have that album of those photos and the interesting structures I created.

When I was about 5, I was given an IQ test, and shortly after that things started to change.

Early on Saturday mornings, a yellow bus would pull up to the house, and off I would go, dressed in my little suit and tie, and would join all the other kids on the bus, all dressed up like we were going to the…

Opera? Museum? Ballet? Symphony? Yep, that was correct.

Over the Bay Bridge went our yellow bus with all these kids that were deemed “special,” and we got to go to all the museums in San Francisco, went to the practices and performances at the opera, ballet, and symphony in the city.

As a kid, I was a little torn apart about this, because I wanted to go play soccer, basketball, all the other sports activities that my other friends were doing on Saturday mornings. Yet once we started crossing the Bay Bridge, and the city came in sight, the excitement of being in the city was overwhelming, and so were the events and venues. Oh, did I mention the zoo and Natural History Museum! But by far, the trips to anything art related were the best!

I was able to journey with this “special” group of friends into the city for about 6 years before getting put into junior high school, where my “difference” from everybody else was a reason to make fun of me, bully me, and overall abuse me. The two years of junior high school were needless to say, challenging.

But as I grew up, those trips to San Francisco and all the cultural venues I was able to attend built a strong love for the arts and architecture. This love would remain with me to the current day, and only got stronger as the years went by.

Now when I travel, I always go to the primary art museums and galleries in the cities we travel to. Those become the highlights of the journey.

I was able to have my first gallery by age 25, and a primary job that was high on the creative scale. In addition, several of my own “companies” used all the artistic abilities I had honed, and would be some of the happiest years of my life.

But a word of warning, life provides a lot of distractions of a “corporate nature,” and those distractions always pulled me away from what I loved in order to chase “financial security.” I finally came to realize that financial freedom ‘really’ comes from doing what you love to do, not killing yourself for somebody who cares nothing about you, and has no concern with your well-being other than your ability to do ‘their’ work.

So I quit the “working for others” gig, and went out on my own. Haven’t been happier, and oddly, all the health issues completely went away. Hmmm, corporate stress?

Another item I needed to overcome over the years, the concern for others' opinions. Don't do it! Don't listen to them! Don't allow others to have control of your life!

If somebody tells you “you’re different,” I would thank them, and offer your sympathy that they are not! If you allow it, that ‘difference’ will grow to be one of your primary strengths! And if you avoid the distractions, and opinions of others, your definition of success will be your life's creative mark on the planet!

#different #happiness #creativity #followyourlove #opinions