To the Misfits...

“Some birds aren’t meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright. And when they fly away, the part of you that knows it was a sin to lock them up does rejoice. Still, the place you live in is that much more drab and empty that they’re gone.”
                                                               -The Shawshank Redemption

 

 We are reaching that stage of our lives where we begin to think... Where we form our opinions, our perspectives... A stage where we are set to venture into the real world, shedding the personalities that the world has given us, forging a path of our own. We deviate from the conventional good-bad classification of ideas to discover a new grey area, a middle ground which is subjective and variable.

Amidst this new found sense of discovery a tumult arises and we look back at the beginning. Questioning our motives, trying to determine their worth, their compatibility and still worse, their existence... A sense of "I don't belong here" begins to surface as the "real me" is in constant disagreement with the person that my peers expect me to be...

“We aren’t who we want to be. We are what society demands. We are what our parents choose. We don’t want to disappoint anyone; we have a great need to be loved. So we smother the best in us. Gradually the light of our dreams turns into the monster of our nightmares. They become things not done, possibilities not lived.”
   -  Adultery, Paulo Coelho

This disparity between the real and ideal personality leads us down the long winding path of self-doubt, low morale and a general sense of confusion. We feel alone despite the company of the people we have known for years, people whom we have for all this time called our very own, and we suddenly swallow this epiphany pill and understand that we will never be free from being straight jacketed into absurd categories like a nerd, or a wannabee, or the geek.

Being mocked at for little deviations from status quo makes us want to question if the world has indeed diminished into a bunch of self obsessed humans who want it to be inhabited by clichéd individuals. Is the world so small that different people don’t have an inch to fit in?

Growing up comes with these consequences and it is important to realize that nobody throws stones at rotten mangoes. If you are being labelled, it is probably because you don't see things the same way as most people do, and because you are the ripe fruit among the many ones that have a long way to go.

What keeps us going is the fact that deep down inside, we know that these labels are mere opinions, and what we see in ourselves and what we wish to see of ourselves at the end, is all that matters.
You are meant to be a great story, never paraphrase for someone else's convenience. If they cannot understand you, its because you are beyond them.

So, “Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. But the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”