Everybody is different in their own special way. Being different is great! Why be like someone else? We all went through something difficult in our lives at one point or another. Whatever that situation was, it changed us, for the better or worse. Or something we are born with: a disability, disease, mutations, etc. They make us different.
Here’s a little story that I’d like to share. When I was born, I had two thumbs on one hand. They were connected to each other at my knuckle. The knuckle that was used to bend the tips of your fingers. The doctors never noticed it. The one who noticed it was my mother. They didn’t remove my second thumb when I was a baby; the doctors removed it when I was about 4 years old. No, I do not know why they waited until I was older. I suspect the only reason they removed it was because they didn’t want me to get bullied when I was in school. After it was removed, my hand was in a cast for a while. There were two knuckles that were fused together when I had them. To this day, I cannot bend the tip of my thumb because of the two fused knuckles. So my thumb is crooked. All of the time, I get questions such as: “Does it hurt?” “What did you do?” “How did you break your thumb like that?”. I also get comments saying that it’s gross and cool at the same time. I did get picked on because I was different, but it was something I couldn’t control. My thumb is on my right hand, which is my dominant hand that I write and do everything with.
Some show their differences physically, some show it mentally, some hide theirs, and some aren’t afraid to show it. We can’t help it. Some of us get stared at, including myself. I can’t hide my hand, and even if I could – why would I want to? Show your differences. Be proud of them. Your differences make you who you are.