Many years ago I was told by a wise woman that being different didn’t matter, all I had to do to enjoy being me was to find my tribe. Being surrounded by a world full of people who are pretty much the same as each other is hard if you’re different in any way, but if you find a bunch of like minded people, they are ‘your tribe’ they are your kind of people. It makes life easier and a lot more fun ( if that’s what you’re after )
Differences occur in many forms, some are physical, some are mental, some are gifts and some are simply ways of thinking and views on life. Maybe you have different passions, different aims, different aspirations, different cultures, different hobbies, just different to the people you are surrounded by. If you’re the odd one out it makes life a bit tough. There’s no one to talk to properly, no one to understand you, no one to join in with your wild ideas ( always very important to have a fellow partner in crime ) no one to celebrate with.It’s a bit lonely. It’s even harder if you have to suppress the real you to fit into the world around you, to prevent ridicule or even worse, harm.
In times past people traveled to events, places, festivals, parties, gatherings of people similar to them. If they were lucky enough to know where to find them and how to get there. They met up with people who had a lot in common with them, made friends and stayed in touch and met up when they could. Any kind of sharing made them all feel less alone. Then the wonderous invention that is the Internet came into being. Added to that the genius that is social media. We complain about it, we love it, we hate it but we all take it for granted. However without it we would return to the days of long phone calls and occasional catch ups with friends, letters written abroad to distant friends and relatives and so much that is now shared on a daily basis would be missed.
But the best thing is, this great invention allows you to finally find your tribe. You can find an endless amount of your kind of people, into your kind of stuff! You can share and laugh and cry and even meet and when you take a close look at people, at their Facebook pages, you can see their tribe. It was only a couple of years ago that I discovered by looking at Facebook posts, that I’m surrounded ( on Facebook and in life ) by really creative people, people who don’t live ‘ordinary’ daily lives, people who let their inner light shine through. I realised I had my tribe, I’m far from creative and I don’t share the skills of the writers, the dancers, the singers, the musicians, the artists, but I share the love of the less ordinary with these people, the love of beautiful things created from a passion, the love of random fun and a love of the generally quite odd! A slightly wider but slanted view on life. To find your kind of people allows a certain kind of freedom, it creates acceptance and combats negativity. If you’re lucky you might even discover that there is someone living nearby that you didn’t know existed. If not at least you can chat and share time with them even if it is over thousands of miles. The world has become smaller but life has become better. We have friends, supporters and people like us. We can even join big groups of people like us, scattered across the world, all sharing something that is important to us.
So I celebrate the wonderful technology, I give thanks for the fact that we can reach out to each other and share our lives, even if our tribes are virtual and scattered across the globe. The wise woman was right, being different is o.k, it will all be fine once you find your tribe!
Author Info
No Comments