I don’t see myself as a great motivator or trendsetter, but I’m pretty sure that I’ve inspired my kids to embrace my slightly twisted view of things… and they’re better for it. By this, I mean that being weird is a good thing. Find out what you like to do, do it, and do not care what others think. Be yourself. For example, I’m a self-proclaimed policy geek. I love research, analyzing data, and synthesizing what I’ve found into a useful form. It’s a niche, and I find wandering through bits of arcane knowledge to be fun. If you think that’s odd—that’s your problem, not mine.
I’ve always been my own person, and my kids have followed in my footsteps. Be yourself. Find what you like and do it. It might take a while to find your bliss, but it’s out there, so be patient, and everything will come together. The end goal is to be happy and content. If your friends think what you want to do is weird or silly, then they must not really don’t understand who you are.
As far as being inspirational, I’m pretty sure that my youngest daughter has bigger goals than being a policy geek living in Indianapolis. She understands that as a state bureaucrat, I’ve done things that affect the citizens of Indiana, but I received no credit for what I’ve done. And I’m fine with that, but that’s not what she wants; she wants more. She wants to leave a mark on this world, and she has the brains, creativity, grit, and drive to do whatever inspires her. And that’s a great thing!
So, my words of wisdom to the world at large is to be yourself. If you want to go through life following a Taoist flow while others want to compartmentalize their lives into 15-minute intervals, bless their hearts and be the leaf in the stream. If you share your love for 50’s Mexican band leader Esquivel and his groovy, space-age bachelor pad music, and if your friends look at you like you have two heads, so what? Encourage your friends to listen to ‘Latin-Esque’ or ‘Mucho Muchacha’, if they like it, great. If not, it’s their loss, in my humble opinion. Be yourself.
