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As someone who has never been part of mainstream I can truly say that I enjoy the right to be different. For me it is not a choice any longer since it seems that I have made it a lifestyle. For me to conform to anything is excruciating and I am rarely successful.

But in the past forty plus years I have also learned that this comes with an extraordinary responsibility. It is the reasonability of helping people understand that we are all different and that it is ok.

When I first discovered this I was angry and wanted nothing to do with it, I tried to blame everyone for this and I ran around feeling angry that those of us who were different were being persecuted. But when I did some deep soul searching I realized that I was not persecuted like others who were different. Where many could not get a job or were asked to leave because of how they looked, I was always in demand by employers and was invited to places that only the "privileged" were invited to and I really never felt out of place while I was there. Once this realization hit me I had to look to see what the difference was between everyone else and me.

It wasn't because of my education since I had dropped out of every educational institution just before I graduated (a topic for another article). It certainly was not for my snappy sense of style; I have been wearing the same thing for most of the past four decades. I have had a Mohawk for most of my life, although I can not spike it any longer since I would be over ten feet tall with it up, which makes it really hard to drive or do much of anything else. So what could it be? The more I watched people and myself the more I realized that the only true difference between myself and others was that I have come to a place that rarely do I care what people think of me, whether for good or bad. And this is an interesting place to be, I think that in a very real way it made me ignorant, which can truly be bliss.

What I mean is that I rarely recognize that there are any boundaries that I should not cross. It makes it so that everyone is my family and therefore are deserving of my love and attention. Most of the time I feel as if every conversation is the first one with anyone, even if I have known them for years and I feel a great deal of love and respect for everyone. In fact it has been said by many people that the best thing about me is that I make everyone feel as if they are my family and that I love them with all of my heart. And I think that is what makes the difference and why I can say that I love being completely different. It gives me the opportunity to learn about you and to live through your eyes, even if it is only for a moment. Everyone that I have met in my life has privilege me by sharing what they are feeling and thinking and it is incredible to me.

I believe that if everyone would accept themselves for the perfect being that they are and love the differences between us we could change the world and everyone would be able to enjoy the right to be different.

Learn more about this author, Mark Thrower the Fa Hu.
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