When my parents were naming my oldest brother, they chose his full name (Joshua Matthew Glick) to match my father's initials. They tried to do the same thing with my second brother, but couldn't agree on an "M" middle name they both liked, so they ended up with "Jordan Taylor Glick". Add two sisters to the mix (Jessica and Jacquelin) and we may as well just change our last name to "Duggar"!
I always felt like the odd one out with all the "J" names running around, but as I've grown up, this definition has come to be a part of my personality I wear with pride.
I am odd. My family and closest friends all know this. But they love me anyway. Not everyone feels the same sentiments towards me, unfortunately, and it hasn't always been easy to be myself. I moved to North Carolina the summer before I started eighth grade. I was twelve years old. I had moved many times in my life, but never to a new school, so I was understandably nervous on my first day. I was always known as the "social butterfly," talking to and making friends with everyone I met. I thought if I was myself, people would appreciate me for all my crazy quirks. They didn't.
It was obvious right from the beginning that kids didn't like the "real me". So I tried to be someone else. I saved the "real me" for when I was at home, with my mom, and tried to be like all the other kids at my school. But putting that costume on every day before leaving for school was an exhausting task. It was a really tough year. I didn't realize it at the time, but trying so hard to be someone I wasn't, turned me into someone I wasn't. I went from being a happy go-lucky, optimistic kid, to being a sad, lonely kid, desperate for a friend.
I can honestly say that Millbrook High School saved my life. Transferring to this school not only allowed me to be the person I truly was, but also shaped me into something so much better.
Hailey is just a name. It's not who I am. I am odd. Quirky. Loud. Passionate. Nerdy. Crazy. And I've learned to love every bit of that. To those of you reading this right now...thank you so much for being a part of that. Thank you for showing me that it's okay to be myself. And to anyone who has or is currently struggling with a similar issue, I leave you with these words:
“Please, be proud of the pieces that make you, you. Embrace the oddities and hold onto them with everything you have. These strange little quirks belong to us, and only us, and they are all absolutely vital in creating the bigger picture that is who we are. Be proud of yourself, because if you are, it never matters who else is. Because when you are, the inevitability of other people believing in you and being proud too, is such an amazing bonus to the strength you already possess."
-Tyler Knott Gregson
