AFON
There is nothing wrong with being different – Melanie Gould
Hello again. This is my second A Focus On Nature post, and I am really grateful for being asked back.
This post is a very important one for me, because to be honest, the past few years have been rough for me. The reason that the last few years have been hard is partly due to the unusualness of my hobby. Because of my hobby, I have been bullied. The bullying got so bad, that I eventually had to be pulled out of the high school I was at, because of fears for my health. But, I never stopped collecting, even though I may have felt like it once or twice when people targeted me through the collection. Then I realised, the collection, nor I was at fault, I’m just a little different. There is nothing wrong with being different.
There is one thing I really want to stress here, and that is don’t change who you are or what you do for people that don’t accept that you are different to them. That is really important, because if everyone was the same, then it would be really boring. Don’t listen to what they say, if you enjoy reading, then read. If you enjoy collecting skulls or feathers or bones, then collect. If you enjoy nature, then carry on enjoying it. Also, if it wasn’t for my love of animals and their bones and skulls (and films/books) then the bullying would have been even harder to cope with.
Also, animal bones and skulls are not weird or creepy or scary, and once cleaned are not filthy or disgusting. Those were the main reasons people enjoyed laughing at me, because they assumed instantly that what I was doing was creepy and disgusting. Ok, yes, when skulls are being cleaned, they can be a bit disgusting. However, once they are clean, they are like works of art. Nature’s art. When you look at any animal skull or bone, if you think about the animal it came from, it is really stunning. Just simply think about what that animal may have done and may have seen. Then, think about how that animal survived. What would it have eaten? If that animal had an injury, how that would have impacted on its life?
My African Lioness skull, who had an abscess on her lower jaw during her life, which you can now see on her mandibles.
My “friends” really did misunderstand what I was doing. Even they laughed at me, and would be very hurtful about my collection and me because it is unusual. I don’t have a common hobby, and I find animal skulls and bones interesting. That’s it, really.
If there were no young people taking an interest and care of the environment around them, then there would be no future for wildlife. So, if someone/some people are trying to make your life a misery because they don’t appreciate nature, just remember, without you, there would be no nature.