Being Different and Liking It!
I was born in Toronto and moved out to British Columbia when I was ten. Toronto is a lot more diverse than Victoria currently is. We’re getting a lot better, but I still feel like an outsider sometimes. I’m sure my parents felt a way bigger culture shock leaving Sri Lanka and moving to Canada, but moving to Victoria felt like moving to a whole new country to me. I said goodbye to my other ten-year-old friends, the culture, food, and so much family. Don’t get me wrong though, I love the island now and would never move!
The thing that gets me most are comments or jokes about my skin colour, and even though it can seem funny, it really does hurt sometimes. It’s been so easy to just laugh it off and join in on the fun instead of calling someone out about it. It’s hard to be the one to call someone out, because sometimes it feels like you’re just going to alienate yourself even more. But, when these comments started to build up and affected how I saw myself, I knew something needed to change.
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Obviously as I’ve grown up, so have the people around me and the lame jokes have mostly ended. They still show up once and awhile though, and it wasn’t until this year when I had a conversation with a friend that told me that maybe others don’t know that what they’re doing can hurt. So, I’ve had to build up the courage, and start being okay with telling people that what they’re saying actually hurts my feelings.
I’ve learned that it’s so important to tell others how you’re truly feeling. Sure, it was difficult to call my good friends out on their comments, but wow, was it rewarding. Not only do the absence of comments or jokes put me at ease, but my friends respect that I called them out on it and have learned the importance that words can hold.
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Being different is awesome and it’s fun to be unique. You don’t have to be like everybody else or what social media tells you to be. Sure, I know, we hear it all the time, and I still have to tell myself it, even when I don’t believe it. I wish that someone told me, when I was younger, how it’s okay to be you and not conform to what everyone else wants you to be.
We’re all different in some way or another, so why not embrace it! The most successful people in the world aren’t “normal”, so why do we strive to be? Appreciating all of the unique qualities I have has been something I continue to work on and enjoy about myself. We weren’t made to be the same, and if I could tell the younger me anything, it would be that “being uniquely different, makes you, you”.
Nareka Jacques 