Lesson Learned - They're Going To Laugh At You!


 

I am a lover of Renaissance Festivals. I love the idea of traveling back in time and enjoying a day filled with joust matches, turkey legs, and being serenaded by a man dressed as Don Quixote (that really happened). One year, I went to the Georgia Renaissance Festival with someone who had never been to one. I was more than happy to show them a part of my weird world. I dressed in somewhat period clothing, yet as I was putting on my cloak in the hotel lobby, this person told me to not put it on "because people were looking at me". Although I didn't let it ruin my day, those words did bother me for years. I used to always wonder if people were looking at me and thinking - She's SO weird! She's such a freak! Black girls don't act like THAT! Why is she trying to act white??? I heard those statements for so long that I refused to show any kind of joy at anything that was strange and unusual. How my enjoying a Harry Potter movie caused a guy I was dating at the time to yell at me - JESUS CALM DOWN! It felt like those words uttered by the mother of Carrie - They're going to laugh at you! They're going to laugh at you! 

You know what? Who fucking cares. 

I am going to get excited when I see a butterfly flying by me, or when I discover a French painter in an art museum, or when I make a new friend. I'm going to yell and scream with joy whenever I watch a soccer game, or when I discover a new book by an author I hadn't read in quite some time. I'm going to be messy and creative because . . . who cares. I love seeing people who live their lives even as the world deems them to be "not normal". As long as their lives aren't hurting anyone, then why should it matter if they wear mismatched socks, colour their hair blood red like Tori Amos, or get excited when they watch the Harry Potter films for the millionth time? Who cares if you like reading the works of Ian Fleming, or if you think Middle Earth is way too cool? Who cares if you dress like you stepped out of the Victorian era, or when you decide that the book Neuromancer will become your way of life? Who fucking cares? The only person that should care is YOU and YOU alone. The person who told me to not wear my cloak because of people watching remained under that frame of mind for the rest of their life. I am sure that if someone was looking at me during that moment, maybe they wanted to know where I got my cloak from, or perhaps ask if the Renaissance Festival was going on. Maybe they WOULD look at me like I was some freak . . . and then forget about it later that day. Because, see, that's the thing - people DO forget after a while. And even if they remembered for the rest of their lives how some girl decided to dress up like a Renaissance character, well . . . .

Lesson Learned. 

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