Jenni on Skype: jclayville 
I was 5 years old, in Kindergarten, when I really started to notice how different I was. I guess it didn’t help that I was JUST starting to get the hang of the English language, but I noticed how quickly and easily everyone befriended each other.
Everyone, but me…
As a child, I didn’t understand that it was because it was hard to communicate with me… I just thought it was because I didn’t have the same stuff they had.
Everyone had blonde hair, blue eyes… maybe even a sprinkle here and there of a gorgeous brunette or a cutie patootie freckled red-head. Everyone was unmistakably “normal”. Me? I had a homemade Asian bowl-cut hairstyle.
I was HONG-KONG-A-FIDE! (I don’t know what that means… just go with it)
It was about this time that “Show and Tell” was popular. Every little girl seemed to have a new Cabbage Patch Dolls.
Since I was already overly aware I didn’t fit in, my 5 year-old mind told me, “If you have a Cabbage Patch Doll, you’ll be like everyone else.”
I begged my parents. I mean BEGGED!!! But the same answer came out of their mouths as usual.
“We just don’t have the extra money.”
I was devastated. I hated being me.
Fast forward to first grade. It’s my birthday. HUGE package. ”I bet it’s more clothes.” I opened the package.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!! It’s a Cabbage Patch Doll!!!” No… really… I screamed. I remember this.
I was FINALLY going to be “normal”. I was finally going to fit in and not feel so alone. I was finally like EVERYONE ELSE!!!
Imagine my devastation when I brought my little “ticket-to-normalcy” to school and discovered I was still the same me as the many days before. The one thing I was certain would make me somebody, only made me feel more like an absolute NOBODY. I was STILL the kid with the Hong Kong bowl-cut. I was still “not-the-norm”.
How often do I try harder than I need, to be “the norm” when what God’s desire is for me is to be genuinely, authentically ME?
Today… I’m grateful I am different. Today… I’m thankful my story is not like everyone else’s. I’m ecstatic that Brian & My Story isn’t going to be like everyone else’s. God didn’t create us to be “normal”… He created us to be UNIQUE and completely pleasing to Him.
Nothing I own defines me.
Nothing I know defines me.
No one I know defines me.
Only GOD defines me.
My Cabbage Patch Doll was a lie. A lie I believed would make me important, when what it really was… was an idol.
What’s YOUR Cabbage Patch Doll?
Are you ready to get rid of it with me?
I am so in love with you not being normal. I would be bored to death if you were as normal as me.
Thanks for being authentic, I am so proud of you!
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Ahhhhh Brian pretty much just summed it up!! He is so sweet. I love you two!!!
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oh normal….i think it is funny that i too strived to be “normal” for a long time and then realized that at some point normal is boring and somewhat fake…
i am glad you are not normal you crazy asian!
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good thing y’all love me… cuz i’m FAR from normal. hahahaha!
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Man, if you were the norm… What a crazy world. You’re cool. And Brian is right- normal is boring.
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I ripped the head off my younger sister’s cabbage patch doll.
Maybe I’m more normal than I thought.
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i try to make a point to only surround myself with odd and interesting people. you my friend, take the cake. and i love it. you win. you’re the winner. bring back the bowl cut!!
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As I was reading this Jenni, it brought back a memory of when I was in kidnergarten. There was a girl named Robin. She was asian and I remember her hair. It was straight and shiny and black. It was cut all one length at about her chin. I remember thinking that she was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. I wanted very much to touch her shiny black hair because it was so different than my straight, boring, “normal” blonde hair. And I so badly wanted to be her friend. I patted her on the head one time as I walked by and she looked at me like I was loony. We were never actually friends.
What’s my point? I’m not sure. Maybe it’s that I thought she was so beautiful because she was different. Maybe that’s God’s point. Maybe it’s our differences that make us stand out and make other people pay attention to God’s story.
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