Everybody, welcome back to the old-fashioned on purpose podcast.

So today we're talking about a topic that has really defined my life.

It's very near and dear to my heart.

I think I have a PhD in this topic, basically.

And that is this idea of not belonging and not fitting in. And what do we do with that? And what happens when we feel that way? And honestly, I think the biggest piece of this episode of what I want to take, have you take home is that I believe this is a gift. I believe it's a superpower. I don't think it's a weakness. I don't think it's something to fix. But it's taken me a long time to get to that point. So I want to share my journey with that with you today. When I recently wrote about this over on my newsletter, my substack, a lot of you responded and said, oh my gosh, this is me. I feel like this. A lot of you said I still feel

uncomfortable with it. I don't know how to feel okay with it. And so, you know, some of the things I share today will be what I wrote over there. So if you've already read that article, this will sound familiar. But there's going to be a whole other level we take it to in this episode that I didn't get to in the email. So keep listening. If this is a topic that feels like a wound for you or a sore

spot, I think that you're going to find the email. So keep listening. If this is a topic that feels like a wound

for you or a sore spot, I think that you're going to find you're not alone. And there's a lot of camaraderie here. So I'm excited to dive into this. Before we do, I just want to remind you, we still have old-fashioned on-purpose planners available. It doesn't matter if it's February or March when you're listening to this, you'll still get a ton of use out of them.

It doesn't matter if you hom February or March when you're listening to this.

You'll still get a ton of use out of them. It doesn't matter if you homestead or garden or farm or just cook. This is a planner built for people with a lot going on with multifaceted lives, even if you don't have all the things, right? So grab yours over at prairie planter.com. It's the planner I use every single day. It's out on my kitchen island open with scribbles all over it as we speak. So I design this for people like me who are

doing a lot of things, have a lot to keep track of, and just want to have it all in one place. So I think

you'll enjoy it, prairie planner.com. Okay, so I really love this topic.

It always speaks to me when I hear other people talk about it or I see quotes in this regard.

This idea of not fitting in or not belonging is not a new thing for me.

This has been the story of my entire life from the very beginning.

And it started off. I was a shy kid, like just as really little child, I was very shy, which caused a lot of poking and prodding from the people around me.

And I felt very resistant to that. So I kind of like closed up and went inward because I hated

people being like, why don't you talk? Why don't you say something? Like, oh, pet peeve.

Combined with that, from since before I could talk, like, I have been obsessed with horses,

like absolutely obsessed. I think my parents started to really see it around age two or three,

but I mean, I've never not been obsessed with horses. And so I galloped everywhere. I drew horses on everything.

Like, if there, anyone asked me a question, I always answered it in some sort of horse-related

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