I was such a dork growing up. I loved it. I didn’t care what people thought of me and I enjoyed being anti-popular. I use to walk the halls of my high school banging pretend coconuts together, while riding my fake horse (now you all must go watch this clip to understand that sentence if you don’t know what Monty Python is). I enjoyed who I was. I talked a lot, and people told me I talked a lot. People made fun of my “quirky” ways and I just brushed it off because I enjoyed who I was. And yes I wore those sunglasses out in public.

If you talk to anyone who knew me as a teenager and attended youth rallies with me, they would bring up the fact that I was “Duct Tape Girl”, or they would say, “you are the girl who wore duct tape pants”. Because yes, those pants are made of duct tape and nothing but duct tape. And yes they were SUPER hot (in all meanings). I also had a bookbag, wallet, and other random items made from duct tape.

I was that cool camp councellor who played dress up with my campers and acted like a fool every chance I got. But at some point I changed. I don’t know when it happened, or exactly what made me change. I am guessing I got tired of people telling me that I talked to much, or was too loud. That enough people made fun of me for being “immature” and so I changed. I got quiet, and I tried to act more “my age”, and here I am a month away from being 27 and realizing how much I miss being a dork. I miss being able to get up in front of people and not worrying about embarrassing myself, I miss being able to make a group of kids smile because I am willing to look silly. So I am going to stop worrying about what others think. I am going to start posting stupid pictures and not wondering if others will think I am a huge goof; because I am. I want my kids to see me as someone who has enough self confidence to make fun of myself, and to be that person I once was.

The moral of this story is don’t make fun of people who act nuts. Let them have fun, and loosen up and have fun too. And go eat some chocolate covered coffee beans because that is what I always did and I turned out fine (also I had awesome youth leaders who bought me lots of chocolate covered coffee beans because they loved me).