Conform or Live Outside the Box!

Fit in or stand out? Aspire to be just like that sports celeb or be yourself? I just texted an older teen and asked him to give advice to his younger twin brothers about life if he knew his days were up. I was pleasantly surprised to receive his answer, pay attention to the advice your parents give you because you’ll regret it if you don’t. Wow! If someone had asked me as a teen if I would have wanted to emulate my parents my initial joking reaction would have been somewhat anti-authority. Yes, I was born in the hippie generation where doing the opposite of the establishment was the norm.

One of my childhood favorite reads was clearly Dr. Seuss and his odd array of creatures and very different types of stories. I don’t think I could live without Green Eggs and Ham, The Cat in the Hat or for those graduates from esteemed institutions there is always, Oh The Places You will Go! The point with Dr. Seuss is that he was a genius with imagination that fueled your view of life being an awesome adventure that always had surprises. The endings to most of his stories were good but always with a twist.

So it is so easy in today’s peer pressure driven culture to be a cookie cutter clone of everyone else. What would happen if you decided to be like some of Dr. Seuss’ characters and become your own type of Cat in the Hat or Horton the elephant? What is truly amazing is that no DNA is exactly the same or two fingerprints would ever match. Think about all of the snowflakes you cut out as a kindergartner and how different they always happened to be!

I know that one of the more difficult decisions in life is discovering who you want to become in life. I can remember getting into a discussion or maybe more an argument with a teen that will graduate from high school soon. She had aspired to be a lawyer and then a teacher and now she’s back to square one. My suggestion to consider the military went on deaf ears. Typically most change majors in college numerous times and in todays' shifting job market there is no such thing as a 30-year career.

So I’ve come to the conclusion that it is so much more fun and exciting to choose not to fit and just stand out. Who wants to look like everyone else? Maybe Dr. Seuss should be required reading for life! So here we come Cat in the Hat or Horton!! Watch out, I will go places, do things and see things that will be a surprise!