Misfit people — we don’t always know how to hope or say yes or choose the big thing, even when it’s right in front of us.
There’s a myth in most cultures about following your dreams. It’s called the hero’s journey. But I prefer a different myth, that’s slightly to the side of that or underneath it. It’s called the misfit’s myth. And it goes like this: even at the moment of your failure, right then, you are beautiful. You don’t know it yet, but you have the ability to reinvent yourself endlessly. That’s your beauty.
If I could, I’d go back and I’d coach myself. I’d be exactly like those over-50-year-old women who helped me. I’d teach myself how to want things, how to stand up, how to ask for them. I’d say, “You! Yeah, you! You belong in the room, too.” The radiance falls on all of us, and we are nothing without each other.
Your story deserves to be heard, because you, you rare and phenomenal misfit, you new species, are the only one in the room who can tell the story the way only you would. And I’d be listening.
To watch Lidia Yuknavitch talk about “The beauty of being a misfit” http://www.ted.com/playlists/407/how_to_understand_your_inner_p?utm_source=newsletter_weekly_2016-09-17&utm_campaign=newsletter_weekly&utm_medium=email&utm_content=playlist_title
