The differences between each of us as individuals is what makes the world go round. Even the people we are most similar to in the entire world--our family--we still have key differences from.
Sometimes it's small stuff, like hair/eye color or eyesight. Other times, it's glaring--like personality, politics, or career paths.
Every difference is key.
u/brokendowndryer asked:
How are you different than the rest of your family?
Here were some of those answers.
Sobriety
I'm the only one that doesn't drink alcohol, aside from a cousin who's an alcoholic and managed (at least for the time being) to stop.
Time To Get Serious
My family are all very intelligent, I'm not dumb and I'm still very well educated but my parents, grandparents, uncles and aunties all have degrees but I'm doing A-levels with no intent of going to university whereas my younger sister is being encouraged already to start looking at the better universities. I think this is all stems from messing around in the younger years at school and having more of a laugh when the rest of family is a bit more serious
Not A Folk
I never ever plan on having children for fear of being a bad parent.
My mother's family all come from a long line of bad parents, then went on to have children, a lot of children! And wound up becoming bad parents. My wife and I both have bad parents, so we decided it was best not to tempt fate. We suffered a hellish upbringings and so don't want to risk creating life only to find out we're terrible parents.
The Other Half
I'm an atheist who wants to make sure others are taken care of.
They are "christian" (never go to church and don't act christian) and generally only do what is best for the themselves/family, not others. Most are also racist.
I also like to travel around the world. They want nothing to do with leaving the southern US. Ever.
I also did well in school, and the others had some major struggles from time to time.
Just Wanting To Know
Not officially diagnosed (yet), but I highly suspect I am on some kind of autism spectrum that somehow slipped through the cracks. As a grown adult, it's become very apparent I am much different than the rest of my family. I just never behaved "correctly" in terms of social interactions.
Yeah, I am technically very high functioning now, but a lot of it took a long, long time for me to get to this point. This is why I think a proper diagnosis may be a bit muddled.
Self Care
I seem to be the only one who won't allow bad behavior. If I need to distance myself from someone, I'll actually do it instead of associating closely and whining about "having to be around them". They don't seem to realize that they are doing it to themselves.
Not My Cup Of Tea
I come from a family of beauty pageant queens and a lot of my cousins have done them, I have not. I just never felt like I looked good enough to be in one and I just generally lack the confidence. There's that and the fact that I think they're oppressive to women too, so...
Avoidance
I keep my emotions to myself, am avoiding conflict and am pretty diplomatic in a family where tears, yelling and arguing who is the monster and who is the victim is dinner...aaand lunch...............and on bad days even a breakfast at dennys' during vacation.
Problems Needing Solutions
I realized that "Just dealing with your problems" won't make them go away and sometimes you need a therapist to help you with that.
If I am unfamiliar/don't know jack about a subject, I will state that I don't and will not go on and hold a monologue about said topic with facts from the 70s that may or may not have been debunked to this day.
I couldn't give two dimes about what my neighbors do or don't do, how they can afford their house and cars etc. If it doesn't harm me, it's not my concern.
Out Of My Element
All of my family is in healthcare and medical stuff, I am in maths and economics.
It doesn't sound all too weird, but it in my situation it means I have a lot of different interests than my family. This makes it weirder at the dinner table since they'll be talking all medic-y and I have no clue what I am listening to, whereas when I talk about stuff I have to overexplain stuff and dumb it down since they won't understand it otherwise. It can be pretty tiring and quickly bursts the bubble you had as a kid "my parents know everything".
