I was working on a social media post this week and started thinking about something.

Am I weird? I mean, I say it all the time. Weird is wonderful here. It's on our website. It's part of how we talk about ADAC. We have Weird Creature Wednesday, where I find some of the strangest animals on the planet and basically say, “Look at this ridiculous thing. Isn't it amazing?” But then I started wondering what my weird actually is. I'm right-handed but all four of my kids are left-handed. I have no idea how that happened. Apparently, my genetics looked at me and said, “Nah. We're going another direction with this one.” 😂 I'm fascinated by unusual animals. Different cultures. History. Random things I find on YouTube. And I mean random. I can start watching something because I want to learn about one particular thing and somehow, three hours later, I'm watching a video about something I didn't even know existed. I ask a lot of questions. I get excited about things other people might consider completely uninteresting. I paint. I swear. And I have never been particularly good at pretending I'm not interested in something just because it isn't what everybody else is interested in. So maybe I am weird. But here's the thing I've learned from working with people for a very long time: Being different and being wrong are not the same thing. We spend an incredible amount of energy trying to figure out whether we're normal. Am I too emotional? Am I too quiet? Am I too loud? Why don't I like the things everybody else likes? Why can't I do things the way everyone else seems to do them? Why does this seem easy for everyone else and so damn hard for me? And somewhere along the way, “different” can quietly become “bad.” That's the part I don't like. Because what if the thing you've spent your whole life trying to get rid of is actually one of the most interesting things about you? What if your curiosity isn't a problem? What if the way your brain makes connections is actually pretty damn fascinating? What if you're not supposed to fit neatly into the box somebody else built for you? That doesn't mean everything about us is wonderful all the time. Being human is messy. We screw up. We hurt people. We have things we need to work on. Acceptance doesn't mean we never grow. It means we don't have to hate ourselves into becoming someone we're not. That's a pretty important distinction. So am I weird? Probably. But I've decided I'm okay with that. And maybe that's what I want for the people who walk through the doors at A Different Attitude Counseling. I don't need you to convince me that you're normal. I don't need you to make yourself smaller. I don't need you to hide the parts of yourself that don't fit neatly into somebody else's expectations. I'd much rather get curious about them. Because weird is interesting. Weird belongs. And around here? Weird is wonderful. 💜 — Margaret