New Year, New Focus
I've always been different. I knew when I was younger. I just felt different than the rest of the kids.
I embraced it. I learned to love being different, and I made it a point to stand out from the crowd. When other people were conforming, I did everything in my power to go the other way. It wasn't that I was disagreeable or contrary, I just enjoyed being different.
And so I grew up that way, and it has stuck with me. I'm always trying to take the path that not many have ventured down before, I'm trying to do things differently than the people who came before me and definitively from the people around me.
I think, so far, I've done a pretty good job of standing out from the crowd, but last week I received definite proof. I was on my way back to New York, driving to the airport, when I received a phone call from my sister. That seems pretty ordinary, I know, but she called after just being in my presence an hour earlier. She could have asked me then what she was about to ask me now, but she didn't. For whatever reason, she waited to ask me a very important, singular question, and made a special phone call just for it.
You know your life is taking a different shape than most other people's when you get asked this question, "Do you have any need for a hula skirt?...I'm cleaning out my closet, and I found one, but I don't need it. Do you want it?"
For most other people in this world, I would say this is an unusual question, it was being directed towards a Polynesian woman, or even to a woman, in general. But for a 24-year-old male to be asked this question by his younger sister is a little absurd. At least it would be for anyone else. But for me, I've come to accept that this is completely normal.
It led me to wonder what kind of life I had been leading to be receiving this question at such an odd time. As the circumstances would have it, I was traveling to my destination with my sister's boyfriend's family, and I was doing my best to make that situation as comfortable as possible. If that weren't bizarre enough to begin with, I now have to field a phone call in which the only information being exchanged is whether or not I am in need of a second-hand hula skirt.
How bizarre, indeed.
The funny part is, I actually had to think about it. Hmmm, could I use a hula skirt? You never know when one could come in handy.
It wouldn't be so out of the ordinary for me to own a hula skirt, as I have at one point in my life owned a coconut bra.
Why?
Because my life permitted me the opportunity of owning a coconut bra with little or no cost to me, so I seized it. Furthermore, it was very entertaining.
But now the task at hand was to determine how urgent my need was for a hula skirt. Do I want my sister's hula skirt or not? She's wasting minutes here.
I opted for the negative. I figured, it would be too much hassle for her to send the hula skirt to me via mail, seeing as I had already left home. Plus, if I really needed a hula skirt when I got back to New York, chances are I would be able to find one pretty quickly and at short notice. As one might imagine, costume shops are plentiful in New York City. They are proportionate to the number of characters that roam the streets, which is quite a large number.
After I answered my sister, I asked her if there was any other reason for which she had called. "No, that's it," she said. And we hung up.
I have not determined what turns and choices I have made in my life that led me to such a ridiculous exchange of conversation, but it seems that my life has had a course set for it. It is defined, first of all, by having a tight group of people who all love each other and share ideas, have similar thought processes and look out for one another (i.e. my family: God bless my sister for thinking of my interests before she threw out that hula skirt). Secondly, it's about having a sense of humor about the things that happen in your life, be they happy, sad, traumatic, funny, or ridiculous, and being able to get through them. Thirdly, and most importantly, it's about being able to share that with others; either through writing about it or storytelling, or just sharing of time and energy to pass on those good feelings to others.
I have a massive backlog of ideas, themes, stories, and other things that I have been keeping track of for the past several years. My focus for this year is to bring all my ideas forward and have them be heard and known by other people, more than any of my years past. That is my goal for this year.
Happy New Year! May 2009 be pleasant to you and bring you many happy memories.
I embraced it. I learned to love being different, and I made it a point to stand out from the crowd. When other people were conforming, I did everything in my power to go the other way. It wasn't that I was disagreeable or contrary, I just enjoyed being different.
And so I grew up that way, and it has stuck with me. I'm always trying to take the path that not many have ventured down before, I'm trying to do things differently than the people who came before me and definitively from the people around me.
I think, so far, I've done a pretty good job of standing out from the crowd, but last week I received definite proof. I was on my way back to New York, driving to the airport, when I received a phone call from my sister. That seems pretty ordinary, I know, but she called after just being in my presence an hour earlier. She could have asked me then what she was about to ask me now, but she didn't. For whatever reason, she waited to ask me a very important, singular question, and made a special phone call just for it.
You know your life is taking a different shape than most other people's when you get asked this question, "Do you have any need for a hula skirt?...I'm cleaning out my closet, and I found one, but I don't need it. Do you want it?"
For most other people in this world, I would say this is an unusual question, it was being directed towards a Polynesian woman, or even to a woman, in general. But for a 24-year-old male to be asked this question by his younger sister is a little absurd. At least it would be for anyone else. But for me, I've come to accept that this is completely normal.
It led me to wonder what kind of life I had been leading to be receiving this question at such an odd time. As the circumstances would have it, I was traveling to my destination with my sister's boyfriend's family, and I was doing my best to make that situation as comfortable as possible. If that weren't bizarre enough to begin with, I now have to field a phone call in which the only information being exchanged is whether or not I am in need of a second-hand hula skirt.
How bizarre, indeed.
The funny part is, I actually had to think about it. Hmmm, could I use a hula skirt? You never know when one could come in handy.
It wouldn't be so out of the ordinary for me to own a hula skirt, as I have at one point in my life owned a coconut bra.
Why?
Because my life permitted me the opportunity of owning a coconut bra with little or no cost to me, so I seized it. Furthermore, it was very entertaining.
But now the task at hand was to determine how urgent my need was for a hula skirt. Do I want my sister's hula skirt or not? She's wasting minutes here.
I opted for the negative. I figured, it would be too much hassle for her to send the hula skirt to me via mail, seeing as I had already left home. Plus, if I really needed a hula skirt when I got back to New York, chances are I would be able to find one pretty quickly and at short notice. As one might imagine, costume shops are plentiful in New York City. They are proportionate to the number of characters that roam the streets, which is quite a large number.
After I answered my sister, I asked her if there was any other reason for which she had called. "No, that's it," she said. And we hung up.
I have not determined what turns and choices I have made in my life that led me to such a ridiculous exchange of conversation, but it seems that my life has had a course set for it. It is defined, first of all, by having a tight group of people who all love each other and share ideas, have similar thought processes and look out for one another (i.e. my family: God bless my sister for thinking of my interests before she threw out that hula skirt). Secondly, it's about having a sense of humor about the things that happen in your life, be they happy, sad, traumatic, funny, or ridiculous, and being able to get through them. Thirdly, and most importantly, it's about being able to share that with others; either through writing about it or storytelling, or just sharing of time and energy to pass on those good feelings to others.
I have a massive backlog of ideas, themes, stories, and other things that I have been keeping track of for the past several years. My focus for this year is to bring all my ideas forward and have them be heard and known by other people, more than any of my years past. That is my goal for this year.
Happy New Year! May 2009 be pleasant to you and bring you many happy memories.
posted by Leland J. Fischer at 2:31 AM
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