I have lost all sense of shame regarding my weirdness. I’ve come to realize that the weird things about me are actually idiosyncrasies that make me who I am. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned that these things make me interesting. Either that, or I have just stopped caring what other people think.
My first childhood obsession was The Wizard of Oz. I watched the movie on repeat, reenacted the tornado scenes with pop up tent, saw the play and dressed up like Dorothy twice for Halloween. The next year I dressed up like Glinda the Good Witch. Oh yeah, I also attended the munchkin convention for my third Birthday. Not weird at all!
As a kid, I was also allergic to red food coloring. It is in almost everything, so you can imagine how hard this was in school. Years later, I’ve becoming very aware of how the food I eat affects how I feel. I guess it’s a good thing I had to be so careful as a kid!
My second childhood obsession was Claude Monet, the French impressionist artist. In second grade, I wrote a whole report on “where I want to go this summer” about visiting his garden. I also dressed up like the main character from the children’s book Linnea in Monet’s Garden for Halloween that year. No one knew who I was, but I loved it. I could care less that my costume was the weird one.
In High School and College, I was the “skater girl” who missed a lot of school for competitions. My life was majorly consumed by skating and school work but that life made me who I am today.
Flash forward to today and I can go on for hours about all the things that make me weird. I’m a wife, a daughter, a friend, an Advertising Account Executive, a blogger, blonde and a former synchronized skater turned runner/swimmer/whatever I feel like at the moment that keeps me motivated. I am optimistic, clumsy, impatient, sarcastic, curious, adventurous, driven and shy when you first meet me. I’m also pretty darn weird. But that just makes me Katie!
Now it’s your turn to share! What weird things make you who you are? Any weird childhood obsessions? What makes you who you are today?
I loved this blog entry Katie! As you know, Erin and I were weird kids too! We loved “Little Women” and visited Louisa May Alcott’s house in Concord, Massachusetts. I also did a project on transcendentalists like Emerson and Thoreau in sixth grade, when most kids couldn’t even say the word! Add that to my childhood crush on Sam Malone from “Cheers,” plus a bunch of other strange interests and I was a very unique kid!
I think this is why we’re “cool” adults. Right? I think our moms totally encouraged us to be weird kids.
I agree! I think it’s good to have different interests than everyone else, especially as a kid! As adults, we at least keep things interesting! Haha yep, our moms definitely did! Although I always laugh and ask my mom if she wasn’t a bit concerned that as a sixth grader I loved womanizing Sam Malone and wanted to work in a bar like “Cheers…”
Ha!
Aw, that picture of you in your Dorothy dress is so cute! I had a really similar dress that I loved so much, I insisted on wearing it when my mom had chalk drawings done of me and my brother (I feel like having my own chalk drawing counts as weird, right?) so it’s immortalized!
I wish it had been even a little cool to be different when I was a kid, I got made fun of so hard for so many things. But that in and of itself helped make me who I am – I probably wouldn’t be so awesome at self-deprecating humor if all the kids I knew hadn’t given me so much to work with. It’s a lot easier to deal with other people laughing at you when you can laugh at yourself. Though I’ve always classified myself along the lines of nerdy/dorky as a kid, not so much weird. Because I loved math and played the flute, among other things. Though I guess one weird thing, my brother and I kind of made up our own language. Sort of like twins do, but we’re 5 years apart.
Love it. Nerds are awesome!!!
My first childhood obsession was Rocky Horror Picture Show. Enough said.
Yes! This is why we’re friends!