Episode 312

Embrace Your Weirdness with Will Etchison

Meeting Will Etchison in person, you might be impressed by his enthusiasm, his individuality and his confidence. Hanging out with him can be an adventure, whether he’s borrowing a mic from a street performer, breakdancing at karaoke or inviting you to a go-karting track.

Of course, he wasn’t always quite like that. Growing up, even though his parents did their best to teach him that his value could be found within, he felt the social pressure in school to believe that his value could only be found in the opinions of others.

He started changing his appearance to try to impress other people, change his behavior or hide things about himself, and even change his taste in women. As you might imagine, none of this helped him find happiness for more than a fleeting moment.

Then when he told a therapist that he was so concerned about being perceived as weird. She responded simply “Why don’t you embrace your weirdness?” Suddenly things started to click for Will – realizing he didn’t have to pretend to be someone else in order to be accepted. Perhaps whoever or whatever he was, was enough.