Marching To Your Own Beat

I was stuck in traffic yesterday heading home from the beach and for a period of time there was a car in front of me with the license plate that indicated that they marched to the beat of their own drum.  I read it repeatedly over the course of our slow journey up the highway and it caused me to think about what that could mean to myself and others.  I first thought about the fact that one can opt to be a complete individual and not be part of the same crowd.  It got me thinking to when I was growing up in school, in particular junior and high school years.  If you were not a very popular kid, chances are that those years were filled with lots of memories of trying to fit in.  I had that great experience myself as I can easily recall the feeling of being out of place and not part of the cool crowd.   I did not realize it until much later in my college years where I believe I flourished, that the majority of people felt  the same way about their high school years.  Those  challenging years taught me a lot about who I wanted to be and which attributes I wanted for myself, while determining which one's I would never want to replicate.  You can say that I marched to the beat of my own drum back then, however, my younger self would have not been able to figure this out for quite some time.  Conversely, I loved my college years, in that I was introduced to a myriad of people that really marched to their own music and they showed me that this was completely normal.  Coming from a small town with little exposure to many different cultures, it was a wonderful experience for me to realize that there were so many different types of people that came from such varied walks of life. They all had different styles and nobody was really trying to imitate anyone else.  This was a revelation to me, as for the prior many years I was part of a culture where fitting in and looking like the mainstream was the optimal goal.  As much as I enjoy thinking about those periods of time in my life, I am forever grateful for all of those experiences as they made me who I am today.  The license plate yesterday was a great reminder about how we should embrace everyone who is different from us.  The music that we hear in our ears is composed of the different notes that speak to each and everyone of us, in their own unique way.  The next time you think about your life and what would be trendy to buy, think about being different and standing out based upon your own style and convictions.  In your own life, look for the many ways in which your unique attributes create and transform how you are living the rest of your life. Remember that walking to the beat of your own drum, means that you are confident in who you are and where you are going.  Whether the world agrees with you or not should never be your issue, it will be simply theirs.