I was speaking with my bestie the other day about going on a trip this summer. She lives in Michigan and I really want her to come up to North Dakota to be able to experience this wonderful place that I am proud to call home. It’s about a 12 hour drive from her place to my place.
That’s not bad.
And I have certainly done way worse.
Like that time I went to Yellowstone and drove approximately 11 hours per day for three days straight. She says we’ll need to stop somewhere along the way to get a hotel. I just cannot comprehend that. Mom and I have made the drive to Michigan plenty of times. With two drivers, you can drive straight through.
Then I got to thinking….
Maybe I think differently than most people.
I remember back in high school personal economics class. They had some kind of program (game?) for a us to play that gave you a set destination you were moving away from home to. Part way through the game, it said you needed to stop for a hotel because surely you couldn’t drive anymore.
I raised my hand and asked why? Why did the game make you stop? Why did it say you needed a hotel? Surely if you were on a budget, like we were in the game, it would be cheaper to sleep in your car at a rest area and push a little farther since we had only been on the road for about six hours.
The teacher asked me, “Why do you think that?”
I told her, “I don’t think. I know. Would you like me to count the number of times I have slept in a car at a rest area? Or how about the hours spent riding in the backseat moving from one state to the next with all our belongings in tow?”
She didn’t really have an answer and just said, “That’s just the way the game is.”
It’s okay to think differently than the rest of the world. And it is definitely okay to embrace your own weirdness and quirks. As one of my friends says, “You do you and I’ll do me.”
