Today, Steve Olsen shared a fabulous post about playing to your strengths. He talked about his unsuccessful school-age experiments in athletics, and ended up with his youthful successes as a geek and musician.
I have sons. My oldest is somewhat eccentric by my standards – and that’s ok. The world would be a boring place if we were all the same!
Nonetheless, today he had me order some ‘bling’ for him. He purchased a Final Fantasy pendant and an articulated dragon head ring. As Steve so hilariously labeled it: girl repellent.
My son doesn’t care. He adores Final Fantasy and would play it hours a day if he could. When I questioned his choices, he said, “Mom, you just don’t know quality. These are really unique!”
Hmmm. My hobby is metalsmithing and jewelry making. I’ve probably looked at a little more art gallery and museum jewely in the last decade than he has. I’m pretty sure that a $14 ’silver’ pendant is not going to be exactly quality.
That aside, he wanted express shipping so he could be sure it would be here by the time school starts. First impressions, and all that. 
The bottom line that I learned from all this? He’s never going to be preppy, or conservative, or possibly even what I would call tasteful. And as much as I cringe at seeing him go out the door in stuff like that, it’s him. He’s a geek, and he’s playing to his strengths.
We all should embrace our inner geek, hippie, punk rocker, etc. Conformity is over-rated!
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August 16th, 2007 at 3:52 pm
Thanks for the Link up. Glad you like the story. My oldest is a bit eccentric too. But I’m cool with that.
How about your inner Hell’s Angel?
That’s what I did back in the day.
August 17th, 2007 at 10:27 am
Steve, great addition to the “and etc” list. It’s hard to imagine you in biker gear, your blog pic looks so clean cut now. Isn’t parenting an eccentric child fun?