This is why creative rebels need to stick together.

Apart from the obvious 'birds of a feather' thing...

You know how you grew up with people calling you "weird" and making faces behind your back? How you were always the odd (wo)man out? How trying to fit in somehow made things worse and when you finally did, you still felt out of place?

Congratulations, you're a rebel.

And I get your frustration, I really do. I lived that life, so I get how hard it is to be different. Except you're not different, you are unique - and by the way everyone is - and the difference you perceive is in the way you think, compared to other people.

“You’re perceiving the fact that most people have become accustomed to thinking the same, but you haven’t.”

And that's GOOD. Do you want to be thinking like other people?

Do you really want to lead the traditional life where everything is in a neat box and a linear sort of progression? Do you want to be normal that much? I hope not.

I don't want to be normal if it means doing what everybody else does.

What a booooooooooooring life.

Get up, get dressed, eat breakfast, go to work, come back home, go on a date, get married, have babies, and proceed with this ritual, but now with a family. And it doesn't end there. At every point someone is telling you what to do. As if you can't be the judge of that. Every time you go to a wedding, you have to wear black tie. When you go to work, you have to work with your head down, don't cause trouble, just like in school. There is no novelty, no excitement, no deviations from the norm. No wonder everybody starts a business nowadays! It's to escape this dreaded predictable life that isn't even our own.

Luckily, for us rebels, things are not so miserably boring.

But there is a price for going against the grain, for not sticking to the norm, and for voicing opinions that do not match the mainstream's. The price is being shunned and treated like a weirdo or someone who is not serious. And the only way to survive as a rebel in this world of normal people, and be happy, is to find fellow rebels.

I speak from experience.

The day I found I was not alone, that there were people out there who did not just mindlessly follow, but lead with their crazy ideas on their sleeves and an unapologetic spirit on their lapels, I KNEW I would be forever in good company.

Now that I am so close to realizing one of my deepest - and dearest - dreams, I can look back at myself growing up, awkwardly and miserably, and smile. Because if I could talk to that little girl who thought she'd never fit in anywhere, I would tell her to be patient and that she didn't have to find a such place, but CREATE IT.

“Don’t look for places that would fit your rebellious spirit. Create them.”

Don't look for places that would fit your rebellious spirit, create them instead.

You have way more control over your circumstance than you know and you are more resourceful than anyone can say. So snap out of your situation - whatever it is - and start creating the little universe you want to inhabit now, and for the rest of days.

As for my big dream, it was to create a place where everybody who felt scared and out of place - just like I did - would fit in: The Creative Rebel Academy.

(Update: The program completed in July 2017! It was awesome!)

It is the labor of love and the result of a life-long struggle.

And now I can share it with you. If you're a rebel, nothing would make me happier than to welcome you there - on the blog, in the community, and the academy itself. And to tell you: You're home. You belong. Screw normal.