I’m not proud of my conditioning either. When i was younger, i was a naturally poisitive, enthusiastic and extremely exciteable person, as i got older, that was conditioned out of me. The people i spend time with, are real city folk. Negative, cynical type people. People that naturally were the opposite of me. Before i knew it, i wasn’t only acting like them, i was instinctively becoming them. My thoughts would automatically jump to something cynical instead of positive like it used to be.

Reading the Manifesto made me realise that. It made me realise i haven’t been myself for a long time now, and i’m not comfortable with the person that i have become, simply because its not me!

It’s been a rough couple of months for me, i’ve lost a lot of ‘friends’ that i found i couldn’t be around anymore because i don’t like the way they think or act. I’ve been trying to surround myself with more freaks, people that will have a positive influence on my life, and help me to get back the ‘me’ that i like. I feel like the Freak Manifesto has almost given me permission to be me.

I’ve found that because so many years have passed since i could really and truly be myself, things have changed. Now i don’t know what i like and dislike, and i guess thats part of the adventure. The main thing is about being really honest with myself, which i find really difficult.

All the changes have been positive, i still find myself thinking negatively a lot but now i can identify that and try to de something about. The only aspect thats not positive is that i’m losing my fiance. We worked really well together before i read the manifesto, but now i’m changing and our personalitys don’t align so well.

I think that’s basically how Ghandi put it. I THINK.

Blame the popularity of manifestos on Chris of Art of Non-conformity

I’ve never felt like my outside matched my insides. I look like a normal, average, middle-of-the-road American. I’m a Mexican (Texican?) who looks Caucasian. I go to goth and industrial and techno and salsa clubs and I look 100% professional. (I was a paralegal for years and no one ever treats me like I’m not to be taken seriously.) I’m a girl who loves Star Trek and I’m a geek who loves Lady Gaga and Rihanna.

I’m also pretty normal.

I don’t fit but I look like I fit but any my POINT IS that after having been undercover in “normal” American, I can tell you that no one is normal. We invented normal the same way we invented money. It doesn’t mean anything unless we collectively decide that it does.

P.S. Love your into to the manifesto!