Definitely Different

I have a big mouth, a loud voice, and something to say about everything. I don’t blend well. I am cosmetologically impaired--I can’t use a straightener, properly apply makeup, or figure out what not to wear. If someone were asked to list adjectives describing me, I can’t imagine any of the first ten (or maybe hundred) would be “classy.” Oh, sure, I’d get “enthusiastic,” “vivacious,” and “intense” (on the nice lists), but not much in the way of “elegant” or “gracious.” It’s not that I haven’t tried to be those things, just that my efforts have been entirely unsuccessful so far. Each time I go into a new situation, I make a silent vow with one of the voices in my head that I will show a different side to my personality. And I usually succeed. For about five minutes. Then, someone says something I disagree with or brings up a subject I feel passionately about (which is most of them) and the braying laugh bellows or the pushy broad comes out and I’ve ruined another chance to be elusive and mysterious by being me. I get not fitting in and feeling like everyone else does. So, reading Helen Lester’s Tackylocks and the Three Bears was therapeutic. Tacky is a Hawaiian shirt-wearing penguin in a tuxedo kind of crowd and the other penguins (with names like Goodly and Neatly) never let him forget it. But, he ends up the most popular wig-wearing guy on the iceberg. That gives me hope.


http://www.amazon.com/Tackylocks-Three-Bears-Tacky-Penguin/dp/0618439536


http://www.helenlester.com/