On Feeling Different

essay – 160 words

My earliest memories are of feeling different. An alien, an outsider, hiding my inner thoughts carefully so people couldn’t see the real me. So people wouldn’t know that my imagination was a wild beast with no rules.

From an early age, I learned not to outwardly stray from the path of normality laid down for me by my parents. I bowed to reality, but secretly set it aside to explore other worlds, to seek the mysteries of life, and to go where I didn’t think others would.

I still awkwardly navigate from fact to fiction when I write. The idea of other dimensions is real to me, because I’ve been to them many times in my history. Opening doors and stepping through is nothing new to someone who has felt different all their life.

I walk through the world with eyes wide open, hoping to fine other people like me. Seekers unafraid of mysteries and what their imagination can see.

Author: Dave Stancliff

Retired newspaper editor/publisher, Vietnam veteran, freelance writer, blogger. Married 51 years. A sense of humor. Defender of truth. Give my poems, essays and short stories a read. I look forward to feedback. Write on! View all posts by Dave Stancliff