Let the taste-makers whisper about you from their flashy corner of the party. Let them cast you off as a lost cause. Your human compulsion to fit into a social network can be satisfied just fine without making any compromises in the name of coolness.
Pick a team. Just make sure it’s your own.
Haul out that John Denver cassette tape. Wear the comfortable shoes. Arrive unfashionably early. Laugh like a hyena at the part no one else thinks is funny. Play with the kids if that’s more fun than hanging out with the adults at the party. Cry whenever you want to.
Authentic corniness trumps cool every time.
Things are only corny or cool because someone appointed themselves an arbiter of taste and others followed along. Judgement sucks. Take a different path, one that allows you to embrace all of you, without shame.
You count. Stick out.
{ PEP TALKS deliver a bracing blast of Grace }
Flickr photo: Pippi Långstrump, by Meanest Indian
Related reading: Pep Talk | Forget Finesse, Book | Fitting in is Overrated
5 Comments
This is soooooo right-on! It’s taken me years to know that you are absolutely spot-on!
After all, who are “they” to run my life??
“Authentic corniness trumps cool every time.”
That makes me a trumpin’ Queen!
Authentic. Corny. And loving the boundless freedom that comes from self-approval.
Your pep talks are cool, sweet juice on dry, crusty days. Thank you, Grace.
I write ’em as I need ’em.
I wrote this the day before my first professional haircut in a year (don’t ask), when I was practically weeping from the long months of extreme dorkiness on the verge of being mitigated by a decent haircut. It occurred to me that I’d still had a full and wonderful life during The Year of the Dorky Do.
I love that one about playing with kids at parties! I used to sneak off at parties to explore people’s bookshelves…oh, the wonder. Much better way to get to know them than small talk!
Oooooh, you’re right, Andrea. I do that, too, even though it feels so personal that I sometimes wonder if I’m being inappropriately voyeuristic in doing so.
And regarding going off with the kids at parties, well, I’m almost 50 now, but for many years now, it’s the kids AND I who get sent outside for being too rambunctious. I love that.
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