Standing Out in A Crowd…

Photography by Dakeney Fox Photography

This post has been somewhat inspired by a feature I read on the wonderful Fishee Designs blog last week. Emily spoke of how she had dealt with narrow minded opinions on how she had dressed (which in my opinion is fantastic) and how she had felt that she had to tone down her fashion expression in an office environment (Office clothes are so darn uncomfy!) purely because she felt like she wouldn’t be viewed as a professional. This got me thinking about my own experience of finding who I was and how I was viewed in a crowd.

Being young and trying to find your place in society is never easy for anyone. As humans it is only natural for us to steer towards people that are similar to us – it is an evolution thing called social grouping but please don’t ask me to explain that here? A prime example of this is the social groups that we form at school for example we had those that were popular or sporty, others were defined by their fashion and music taste such as gothic or grebo, those that were intelligent or showed an deepened interest in education were nerds and sadly those that didn’t tend to fit in any of these were the skanks! Even now these classifications make me incandescent with rage!

So where do you think I fitted in with these groups?

To be honest I didn’t fit in any of them and this made me extremely confused? I tried to be sporty but that was never going to have a happy ending as I hated any type of exercise when I was at school. I enjoyed a wide range of music as I was a singer so my taste ranged from Opera and folk to drum and base and heavy metal! As well as singing I loved to act and so joined the drama group where I had lovely group of friends, all with an very eclectic taste in fashion. It was probably around this time I attempted to dye my hair bright pink and dread it myself however, do you know how much work goes into keeping those dreadlocks? It wasn’t long until I got bored and had them removed. I also loved to learn and I always say that I have two very different sides to my brain. One was always very creative and loved writing whereas the other side was serious and scientific and so I was never really even sure if I could even classify myself as a nerd??

I have always been painfully indecisive and one thing I will tell everyone is that I refuse to limit myself to just one thing, I want to be everything, do everything, see everything and go everywhere and I suppose this is where my inability to find a group has always been such a struggle!

Fast forward ten years and I am extremely comfortable with who I am now. So what makes me different and how do I stand out in a crowd? The biggest thing I would say is that I stand out because I am not one of the crowd. I don’t fit into any type of social group not because I am rebellious or anything but because I simply can’t and I accept that. I embrace every single thing that life throws at me I like to try different fashions, listen to lots of different music, I have experienced lots of different jobs and considered a phenomenal number of different careers, I eat a wide range of food except meat surprisingly it was very easy for me to decide to become a vegetarian. I love all animals and I don’t even have a favourite colour because I can’t pick just one, but most importantly I am completely myself!

So if you like me are still wondering where you belong, STOP! Don’t follow the crowd, stand out from it and embrace who you are…who ever that might be?

Much Bespoke Love

Emily ♥