You’re Not The Black Sheep Of Your Family, You’re The Unicorn

What would happen if you rebranded “black sheep”?

I am the first in my family to do a lot of things that I find important, but that they view as weird. I’m the first to go to therapy. I’m the first to work for myself. I’m the first to have moved across the country (and back again).

Breaking through old beliefs in order to become the first to do all of these things proved to be really uncomfortable and isolating. I don’t think that when I did the first thing that defined me as a “black sheep,” that I truly understood that it wouldn’t be the last. I thought I was just going to therapy. I thought each individual decision lived in a vacuum, when in reality they all actually created the foundation for the person I wanted to proudly live life as.

The term “black sheep” feels defined by a specific moment in a person’s life and, upon real reflection, it’s what the family uses to label that person who now feels like an outsider and what inherently that person was taught to label themselves. But, just like the thing you decided to do that earned you that title in their eyes, you can step outside of the norm again. You can refuse to call yourself a black sheep just because you’re doing things you find important that they may view as weird.