YOU ARE NOT WEIRD

I often find myself confusing. I have felt this for a very, very long time. It would not be unusual for you to find me reading a book on fashion while watching the Simpsons in my sports kit. One day I could be listening and singing very loudly to some Justin Timberlake while the next you could find me head banging (not really, head banging just looks painful. Whiplash anyone?) to some heavy rock in the form of AC/DC or chilling to some Mozart. The same goes for fashion. Some mornings I wake up and feel like dressing smart and professional and throw on a fitted dress, tights and some boots. Other days I find myself walking to uni in boyfriend jeans, a band tee and a leather jacket or even just some gym clothes. It's quite tiring trying to keep up with myself!

I love watching comedy in any and every form. I even spend hours on youtube watching interviews with the comedians/writers/actors who are involved with some of my favourite shows and I even buy their books. This in turn as left me with quite a deep knowledge of, mostly American, comedy which 99.9% of my friends have no interest in (and to be honest why should they?) which means this is something that I get to enjoy by myself.

The same with sport. I have spent many weeks interning at different sports departments from the BBC to The Daily Telegraph. Throughout school and even now during university my whole week was basically taken over with either hockey, net-ball, rugby or going to the gym. Weekends are spent watching hours of sports coverage or reading about sport. However, most of my friends don't (and again why should they) have much interest in sport and that's totally fine, I still love 'em,  it just means that it's another thing that I get to keep to myself.




For a number of years this got me down. The fact that I had interests in things that the majority of my friends did not have a care in the world about made me regularly ask 'what the hell is wrong with me' and 'why am I so weird'.

I was and am still not a big drinker/party goer and that was just another thing that made me question myself. Before going to university the main thing I worried about was not living five hours away from home but the thought of having to go out partying 3 times a week just in order to make and more importantly keep friends.

Alas, there was and is nothing for me to worry about and the older I get the more I can see this. So what if I have random interests that confuse me let alone everyone else. That just makes me super interesting (well, I hope so). I mean, having an interest in history, music, comedy, fashion and sport will only make me richer as a person. It is definitely not a bad thing. Also, so what if I don't fit in everywhere, who gives a whoot? Most of my most best friends in the world have almost nothing in common with me but they still like me (I hope) and I sure still like them, so having different interests is NOT a bad thing and it does not make me or you weird or unapproachable.

Having spent almost three years away from home, interacting and socialising with different people from all over the world on a daily basis has made me feel much more comfortable and confident in myself. I have met friends at university that I know I will be in contact with for a very long time and these are friends that have quite similar interest to me - hurrah! There are actually people out there in the world who have similar interests to me - something that I did not think was possible a few years ago! As I stated in my last post, in third year I have developed friendships with people that have made me a much happier person and has allowed me to stop worrying about a lot of things in my life.

These are friends that I can meet regularly for coffee to talk about music, TV, and general life, can count on to accompany me to the cinema or shopping on a Saturday while also understanding that I am not the biggest fan of the SU and would much rather grab a drink in a pub where we can have an actual conversation.

Having grown up feeling totally different to almost everyone I knew, I finally feel comfortable and quite proud of my own interests, style and thoughts. You don't have to be like everyone else. You're allowed to have different opinions, ideas and interests. It does not mean you are weird or wrong. It does not mean that you will never meet awesome friends and it most certainly does not mean that you have to change to fit in. Stick to your guns and everything will fall into place.

(Okay, even I admit that I am being weird here. I think I should note that it was Halloween. I don't normally do my make-up like this!)