Different...

Lately I have heard this remark from so many people, “You are so different…I have never met anyone quite like you.” In my earlier years the remark irritated me…usually it was from the lips of a person of a different race…and I took it to mean they were trying to insult other black folks at my expense… Or… It was from a man… And I was convinced he was trying to ‘game’… For some years I tried extremely hard to have some semblance of sameness… Never seemed to quite work… I don’t follow trends for clothing… Who my friends are… Cars… What I eat… What I read… And so it seems for what I write… One of the things that has touched me most when people talk about my writing… Is when they say… “How Bold…” “Refreshing…” “Never read it quite like that before…” “Damn that’s different…” Now I love hearing it…embrace it…savor it…love it… I am not trying to be different for difference sake… I am just incapable of dancing to anyone’s tune but my own… I beat my own drum…dancing til I sweat… I write my own stories…without a single regret… I probably would do it differently…if I could… I simply can’t… Love and Blessings… Angelia acVernon Menchan