Everyone is an Anomaly

I realize, by definition, this cannot be true since anomaly means:

1.  a deviation from the common rule, type, arrangement, or form.

2. someone or something that is abnormal or incongruous, or does not fit in; an anomalous person or thing

3. an odd, peculiar, or strange condition, situation, quality, etc.

So, maybe everyone isn’t an anomaly, just everyone I know. Or have met. Or read about. Or see in the media. Or…

Let’s start with me.

Like many kids of the X generation, my parents divorced. My brother and I lived with my dad, which was not like many kids of my generation, and we lived an unconventional life – to say the least.

I wore clothes that were hand-me-downs but I didn’t have any older siblings.  I couldn’t read, write, or tie my shoes before I started kindergarten. No teacher could say my name on the first day of class, though it’s pronounced exactly the way it’s spelled. The best thing that happened to me was in the 4^th grade I got glasses. I was promoted from outcast to nerd and teachers began taking me seriously.

When I was in Jr. High School I read a book about handwriting analysis, something that has always intrigued me. My big takeaway was that when a signature is underlined, that is a sign of a confident person. Well I thought, perhaps that can work both ways, and I began tuning a signature with an underline. It was perhaps in Jr. High that I began to recognize that being an anomaly is my biggest strength.

Right Now

Right now I am sitting in one of the “Hippiest” coffee shops in town, not to be confused with hippest, but I suppose it could be that too. There are huge plastic barrels blocking the way between myself and the spot where I grab my refills. There is a grinding machine taller than me and as wide as a dishwasher humming through its work behind me, the chairs are well worn and wobble a bit, the art is funky and there is a political poster next to the entrance. The coffee here is great; my glass mug today is cute snowmen with scarves on. I prefer coffee out of a mug.

Because I chose this coffee shop today, there are certain assumptions that can be made about me, my politics, my beliefs. These assumptions may be countered slightly by my men’s large, black and red leather, Nebraska Cornhuskers, football jacket draped over the corners of my chair. And also my bag which is also oversized, a black and pink shiny purse with Barbie® all over it. It is a prized gift from my step-mother, my father scowled at it and said no one would ever take me seriously with a bag like this.  Clearly a dare.

Today I’m wearing jeans. However most days, though I don’t go to an office, I dress in slacks and business wear.

And then there’s Personality

One of the anomalies within my own personality is in regards to people. I’m told, when I was a child, it wasn’t unusual to find me making friends with a table of strangers when we were out. I don’t have clear memories of this, so I’ll take their word for it. My mother is very gregarious. And I do recall, when with her, I followed her lead. We would “ham it up” many a times, for my mother the world was a stage and I could always be counted on to jump into the show.

In the days of my youth personality tests labeled me an extravert. But even in those days I described my condition as “an extravert who’s afraid of people.” I was drawn to new people and groups, but the consequences of these interactions eventually wore me down.

I think over the years I allowed my experiences to change me and I succumbed to a basic personality change – I am more comfortable as an introvert. And so here I sit, talking to you people from all over the world, from behind a screen in a hippy coffee shop.

I’m going to talk more about introvert and extrovert statuses of the Sikora family over at The Road We’ve Shared.  I hope you hop over and see what I have to say about the genetic/environmental combination and expectations of Down syndrome and an introverted personality.

What makes you an anomaly? 

C’mon, I know you are or you wouldn’t be here.