“Ach, we’re all a bit weird in our own way”

[PullingMySocksUp]

Do you think you’re a bit odd or do you think you’re completely normal?

I have a theory.

I'm unusual. I like that though.

I genuinely do not care what others think of me, I know I'm a good person. That is what matters!

Isn't there a cliché about not comparing the inside of your life with the outside of someone else's. As a pp said, if you get close enough to anyone, you learn their idiosyncrasies. Derren Brown once did personalised cold readings for a bunch of students who all felt he had them nailed on - he'd actually given them all the same reading.
In one way everyone is a bit similar, which is important in society for bonding. In other ways we all have our own priorities and preferences.

LostInTesco mine was a medieval peasant for a while too, but I found the (imaginary) skirts insufficiently swishy! In my actual life I only ever wear very long skirts. I tell people it's for modesty, but it isn't. It's for the historical swish!

Howmanysleepsnow give it a go!

I think I’m weird, as I’ve got older I’ve come to accept it. I don’t have the same hobbies, likes/dislikes etc than many of my friends/peers and over the years it has probably been the reason I have drifted from a lot of friends. This worried me for a time and I wondered if I should try to fit in more but ultimately I can’t change who I am.

@DontDribbleOnTheCarpet I also do the fantasy life thing sometimes, I find it a release from the days when my anxiety gets the better of me or I’m just bored with day to day. The fantasy me lives a fabulous life and is far more glamorous than the real me!

Thanks everyone, this is cheering me.

It’s part of a conversation I had with my mum yesterday. She was bitching about someone for something inconsequential. I made the ‘we’re all odd’ comment.
She said she is perfectly normal.

For reference she purchased a duvet cover set to wrap a Christmas present in rather than wasting wrapping paper (so we now have a crap duvet cover we don’t need) and rushed off last night to feed her garden fox and cats without saying goodbye to anyone. Nothing major, but a bit odd.

Yup I’m definitely weird in lots of ways. All out of fucks

I've never been conformist or had any drive to be. My friends tend to be other outliers, but they are all different, artists, rockers, a lot of dyslexia and dyspraxia or other needs. I do my own thing and have always had a strong sense of what I like which is often not overlapping with my friends but we have a connecting sense of personality. I'm not easy to pigeon hole. Interestingly DS is neuro-diverse in several ways and it turns out it's rife through my paternal family so for a variety of reasons, I suspect I may be dyspraxic which would explain A LOT.

I definitely have my idiosyncracies and have never tried too hard to hide them. It's quite good for filtering out dull little conformists who get freaked out by anything not mainstream or trendy. (Which probably is a cover-up for their own quirks).

I like people, but I'm also very happy in my own company and I think that can disconcert a lot of people.

It's self indulgent to consider yourself weird. We are all different and that's wonderful. We are all special but we are not weird

“Everyone is somebody else’s weirdo” never a truer word spoken!

You're all weird. I'm normal.

Pulling, what was the present she wrapped in the duvet sheet?!

I'm not sure if I'm weird but I am anti-social. I often cross the road to avoid speaking to someone I know or take out my phone and pretend to take a call if I see someone I know approaching me on the street. I work in a large, sociable team but can only really be bothered to speak to a handful of my colleagues as I find the others too taxing. However I enjoy talking to complete strangers because I actually find people in general fascinating...!

I think I'm a lot LESS weird than people assume.

SO MANY people have actively told me that they made presumptions of me based on surface level things, and apologised once they've got to know me.

They didn't need to, as I haven't always realised, and the sudden knowledge that they too, thought I was a weirdo is quite "ok, how do I react to this?"

DontDribble Lots of creative writer type imagination-owners do this; it's often situational.

Sitting down with soup (or casserole) and a slice of bread = fantasy adventurer eating in an inn. Also a packed lunch of a slice of ham, bread and a modest wedge of cheese.

Knitting = the only way your family will survive the bitter cold of the winter. see also Getting-wood-in-for-the-woodburner.

1plus2equalstrouble No I think that’s what most people are doing, just trying to fit in, in spite of what they might think inside (and never reveal). And that’s “normal” for the majority. If something she was doing was abnormal she would swiftly correct it.

The weird ones are where this social conformity doesn’t work, and that’s when things get interesting!

I have asd, so others find me weird

try really hard to copy others to fit it, my goal

Whoops posted too soon ignore ‘my goal’^

I think people like to imagine they’re quirky and weird because that’s more interesting sounding than saying you’re normal. I’m more normal than I would like.... I live in a suburban area and work in the public sector but would like something much more bohemian. I don’t know anyone I would say was weird though... most people are pretty conformist.

I think the people who consider themselves weird and quirky are very often the most normal.

But basically everyone is the same underneath, then has a veneer of normal, then has a few things unique(ish) to them.

I think most people would say I'm pretty normal but I often feel like I don't fit in at all. But I realise most people feel like that.

I think we're all weird in our own weird and that's wonderful.

I have ocd among other craziness, not wonderful in itself but I wouldn't be me without it.

I also have a dark sense of humour but also enjoy cheesy cheery comedy like Michael McIntyres fairly innocent humour.

I love sci fi and especially am fascinated by time travel and history.

My friends variously are into sci fi, fantasy, unusual crafts and hobbies, surreal poetry, rare dance types, extreme sports, unusual languages, role play games, am dram... all sorts that aren't necessarily enjoyed by "the mainstream" whatever that is!

I love all my weirdos dearly and hope they love me and my weirdness too.

Well, I don't think I'm weird or particularly odd, but I am quite often agog with things I read about people doing, or not doing, when I'm on MN, so perhaps I'm in more of a minority than I really think I am

Yes

I don't think I'm typical for a woman in her 40s. I get consumed by various topics, hobbies or people for months at a time. I spend much of my life daydreaming. I'm not very good at being an adult really - I'm disorganised, lazy and anxious. I don't think any of it is abnormal though.

@DontDribbleOnTheCarpet yes I do this, my fantasy persona is in the present day though, it's a great way of zoning out. I also have a very athletic little girl who runs alongside the car when someone else is driving and parkours over the lorries. I think I am odd, friends say I am weird or bonkers with affection and tbh I wouldn't change me. I'm being assessed for dyspraxia, but I don't know how much that affects me being weird and how much it is just me iyswim

@Lucindainthesky are you me??

I’m definitely an introvert. I need to see the advantages of this but it feels like extroverts are more clues up, successful and geberslly better at life.

I don’t think I look weird or come across as weird. But it’s like it’s my own perception of myself, knowing what I know about myself!