Questions: #46

If you're not familiar with this series of posts, and you want to catch up, the introduction is here.

Question #46: What would you do differently if you knew no one would judge you?

I can't really think of anything.   I don't spend a whole lot of time agonizing over what people will think or say or do whenever they see me.  Examples:

*  I made a decision, off the cuff, to buzz my hair, within 10 seconds.  I did it again when I was 26.

*  I graduated from college with History degree and I was a pretty decent student.  Instead of graduate school, I went corporate.  A lot of professors said "I can't see it."  It's ok if they couldn't.  I could.

*  I go places alone.  A lot.  Restaurants.  Coffee shops.  Camping.  I figure maybe I'll meet someone interesting, and if I don't, that's fine too.  But who cares if I'm sitting alone someplace?

*  I spend a lot of time with other people's kids.  A gazillion people don't get why I would volunteer to watch TF or ask to keep TresPageJr for the weekend.  I like kids.  They are honest and fresh and innocent.  You don't have to spend time with them.  Why do you care if I do?

*  I dedicated an entire room in my house to my studio.  I hear "don't you need that room?" "what are you going to do when you have kids?" "why would you do that?" all the time.  I did it because I want it.  I'll figure it out if/when I need to make a change.

*  I have 3 cats and 2 dogs.  I can see people start to roll their eyes when they hear that.  It's ok.  Roll them.  My beasts and I have a good thing going.

*  Some of my best friends are 11 years old.  Some of the other ones are in their 50s.  Nope, I don't think it's that strange, and probably no one else should either.  I'm still going to hang out with my Unlikely Friend, TresPage, Teach, TF, TresPageJr, CloudMan, and JP.  

I know what I do, and why I do it.  Sometimes I do a lot for other people, and sometimes I am selfish and I do only what I need to do.  All that matters to me is that I can live with my decisions day in and day out.  I hope the people I love can live with them too, but if they can't, it's not enough to stop me.

On the other hand, I think that as much as I don't want to admit it, I'm pretty mainstream.  There aren't a whole lot of things that I do that are that different than other people.  Yeah, I'm quirky, but deep down, I'm not all that different.  I just want a good life, good friends, a family, a stable home, a pack of pups who love me, and enough money to live a comfortable life.  That's not so different right?

And so what can I come up with that I would do differently?  My quirky life just isn't that strange --- even compared to<fill in the blank>.