Red Herring

Tonight I went to a speaker series held at the University Center. The speaker was for extra credit in my nutrition class, and I knew it would be more beneficial for me to go then to not go. The speaker was very vague, speaking almost 75-25 percent in metaphor to normal, conversational talk. She was a little hard to follow at times, but I feel like I got a lot of her talk in retrospect.

She started off with some metaphor that confused most, about a husband and wife's rules about checking a jar. I know right? Anyways, she started after that with something I actually appreciated. She started talking about the kind of people she counsels. She mentioned that the people she counsels are typically what she calls "thin-skinned." She described these people as very detail-oriented, big picture focused, and most importantly, extremely sensitive and emotionally connected people. Her description of these people struck a chord with me. It reminded me of me. I related completely with the traits she mentioned, and so my interest was instantly sparked.

She said a lot of the problems they deal with stem from their natural, personalities interacting with a world that is not adjusted to their nature, to a society that is predominantly thick skinned. This interaction, she said, causes the sensitive, thin-skinned people to feel rejection, to feel disapproval. They feel negative energies from others who do not know how to interact with them and often times question what is wrong with theses interactions, what are the causes. The speaker said that naturally, the emotional thin-skins blame themselves first, and fall into the mindset of "it must be something wrong me." She added that though this type of personality is often times given negative connotations, it could not be farther from the truth. As she said "the world would be a better place if the world had more people like this."

I instantly went from thinking this lady was a kook, to thinking, "Has this lady been following me around my whole life?" Walking back from the speaker, I couldn't help but think differently about myself. Previously, I had always hated and back lashed against my natural personality. I knew that was me, but I hated that I had these frequent negative interactions with thick-skinned people. And like she said, I always blamed myself. I was always the weird one, the one that should change.

But this lady presented me with a newer way to see it. I am different, we all are. I offer so much as a person, that for me to change would be tragic to my character, to who I am. God made me how I am for a reason, and just because the things I can offer this world are different and harder to find or see is not a bad thing. I have so much to bring to this world, and I just have to come to terms with who I am. I am thin-skinned, and that can be hard to deal with, but it allows to me be a better friend to the people I love. And, to be honest, that is the most important thing to me right now.

I am going to work on looking for what I bring to the table, and maybe try and find something each day that I, as a unique individual, bring to my relationships. I think I will notice things I never did before, and ultimately find greater value in myself.