Growing up, I always felt like an ugly duckling.
You know the story. Awkward little critter gets endlessly teased for being different, then grows up into a swan, more beautiful than any of its former foster family. Great story.
That awkward little critter was me. And since I was equal parts bookworm and idealist, I knew my day would come. I just kept waiting to blossom, to become a swan. And waiting. And waiting.
Until one day I had to face facts. I was not going to become a swan. I was not going to wake up one morning and be beautiful and confident and universally admired. But that wasn't the real problem. Here's the other bit: I also still wasn't a duck. I was okay with not being exceptional, but I did want to belong. But somehow I had never grown into anything like everyone around me had. I still didn't fit in. And at that point I realized that if I ever wanted to be anything besides an ugly duckling, it was going to take work.
I'm not going to lie; there was some crying and some bitterness and a lot of whining about how it wasn't fair that what seemed to come naturally to everyone else was so hard for me. But then I got over it. And I got to work. And I've decided to record that work and that journey here.
To be clear, this is not a blog about becoming something I'm not. This is a blog about growing and growing up, about standing out and fitting in, about self acceptance and becoming my best self in every way. The goal? To be able to look at my self at any given moment, smile, and feel just ducky.
You know the story. Awkward little critter gets endlessly teased for being different, then grows up into a swan, more beautiful than any of its former foster family. Great story.
That awkward little critter was me. And since I was equal parts bookworm and idealist, I knew my day would come. I just kept waiting to blossom, to become a swan. And waiting. And waiting.
Until one day I had to face facts. I was not going to become a swan. I was not going to wake up one morning and be beautiful and confident and universally admired. But that wasn't the real problem. Here's the other bit: I also still wasn't a duck. I was okay with not being exceptional, but I did want to belong. But somehow I had never grown into anything like everyone around me had. I still didn't fit in. And at that point I realized that if I ever wanted to be anything besides an ugly duckling, it was going to take work.
I'm not going to lie; there was some crying and some bitterness and a lot of whining about how it wasn't fair that what seemed to come naturally to everyone else was so hard for me. But then I got over it. And I got to work. And I've decided to record that work and that journey here.
To be clear, this is not a blog about becoming something I'm not. This is a blog about growing and growing up, about standing out and fitting in, about self acceptance and becoming my best self in every way. The goal? To be able to look at my self at any given moment, smile, and feel just ducky.
