Genesis

Extraordinary: beyond what is usual, ordinary, regular, or established. exceptional. remarkable.

The start of a new year always provides the perfect excuse to begin new things, to start fresh, to try something new. But to be honest, resolutions and I don't get along. I normally call them New Years Inclinations because, to be honest, I never follow through.So I'm trying something different this year in the hope that this will be the year that it finally sticks.

Thanks to my sister, I found this awesome site called myoneword.org, where instead of listing resolutions, people are committing to one word. This word embodies a change or many changes each person wishes to achieve in this New Year in becoming the person they wish to be. Much more manageable, in my humble opinion.
Care to guess what my word is? You got it. Extraordinary. I have chosen this word in an effort to remind myself exactly who I am and who I am not.

I've spent the last four or so months living to the best of my ability an ordinary life. Quite frankly, the only thing it's done for me so far is sink me into a deep and lingering depression. In an effort to be ordinary, I have been chopping off, suppressing, and ignoring parts of who I am. The result? Not pretty.

This brings me back to where I always find myself--the unalterable and inevitable realization that I am not normal! The status-quo and I have never gotten along. I have a lot more in common with anti-conformity. Granted, I've taken anti-conformity to extreme lengths in the past. But this brings me to my next realization: Being myself is Enough.

The result of my "ordinary" experiment is not pretty because I really am beautiful the way I am. Granted, I am not everyone's cup of tea, and I get that. And that is A-okay. It's okay because the creator of the universe himself crafted me, to be me, exactly the way he designed me. The acceptance of a few people here and there, I can finally do without.

So this year i am embracing myself as I have imagined myself to be: Extraordinary.