On Being Different

How a lifetime of not fitting in made adopting a plant-based diet easier

High school life

I’m a lifelong misfit. I dropped out of kindergarten. I spent grade school recess on the margins of the playground, unable to make my way into the games of four square that dominated the schoolyard. 

High school lunchtime for me was like a scene from an 80s movie with other kids closing ranks around empty seats and blocking my access to tables as I circled the cafeteria trying not to cry.

I spent most of my high school lunch periods in the library, reading and writing in my journal. Eventually, I came to love this quiet time to myself.

I chose NYU for college mainly for its lack of sororities and sports teams. 

During my first week, the performance artist Penny Arcade spoke to incoming freshmen. She said, “I love coming to NYU because it’s the least popular kid from every school in America.” 

My shoulders dropped and my adult life started. There were other misfits in the world. Everything would be OK. 

I tell you this not for your sympathy but because these experiences prepared me for following a plant-based diet. 

When you stop eating animal products, no matter how cool you were in high school, you will get a crash course in not fitting in. For a lot of people, this can be the most jarring and difficult part. 

I already had practice being a misfit not just from my childhood, but also because I’d quit drinking alcohol in 2017. It’s getting better as more people set alcohol aside for health reasons, but passing on booze will often put you out of step with most of the people around you. 

I have come to see this as a good thing.

One thing that makes it easier to not fit in with the crowd is asking myself if I actually want to be like most other people. 

For example:

• More than 40% of American adults have diabetes or prediabetes.  

• About 66% take a prescription drug.

• More than 50% of Americans have not read a book in the past year.

• 53% don’t meet the minimum guidelines for physical activity.

If you want the results in life that most people get, do what most people do. 

Half of premature deaths in the United States are preventable.

If you want different results, you have to think different thoughts and choose different behaviors. All these different choices can lead to health and well-being instead of illness.

Today I wear my misfit status as a badge of honor. It’s made me who I am in so many ways. 

All those endless hours in the library writing made me a writer. I got really good because of sheer practice. Writing became my life’s work. 

But it also helped prepare me to go against the grain to reclaim my health and stay off medications.

I’m not special at all. It’s just practice. With practice, anyone can get comfortable being a misfit.

Accepting myself as a misfit might be the healthiest choice I ever made.