There is no Virginia, Santa Claus.

Why is being among the "norm" so big a deal in society? The majority of the population is more interested in having the haircut/house/outfit/fill-in-the-blank just like the Jones's than being happy with themselves. In essence, their own happiness relies heavily on what most other people - especially those within their own social status - think of them.

You see the victims of it everywhere, every day. The woman at work with the phony, polite laugh. The high schools filled with Barbie photocopies in identical wardrobes with matching purse and shoes. The magazines proclaiming to the world that body image is healthy as you were made to be...and then have pages and pages of disgustingly thin and half-naked, airbrushed and retouched girls in all their glorious flawless-skinned perfection.

The ones society rejects are those with their own minds. Bohemian, wild-child, intelligent people with good hearts and solid mental states. The free spirits are the ones left in the background, ignored for fear they will overtake the cloned and metro-sexual world.

Why in God's sweet name would it take a man more than an hour in the bathroom to walk out the front door?? We're losing our sense of individuality; thinking we're making an impression, when all we're really doing is blending in.

What's wrong with wanting to try just about everything legal at least once? Live a little. It's incredibly refreshing to meet the person who has completely off-the-wall ideas and lives them out, not caring what they're thought of at the local senior's coffee clutch on Saturday afternoon.

I saw a quote on a profile that makes perfect sense in all this: "Be Open....Be Yourself Live Life...There are no dress rehearsals.....This is it!!"