As an artist, actor, writer, and teacher, my day-to-day life doesn’t always look like everyone else’s. I’m usually in the midst of one creative process or another and I’ve learned to accept that the creative life—and maybe even the artist as a person—are sometimes just inherently different. I’ve spent many a day, however, out in the world feeling like I’m flying a massive “freak flag.” It’s been a process to learn to not only come to terms with that feeling but, just maybe, to embrace it.

As a successful actor in my 20s and 30s, these special qualities had a certain appeal. Being different was seen as a good thing—glamorous even. But in regular life? Mmm, not so much. Being different can be unsettling for the people around you. It makes you seem like an outsider and a potential threat to the status quo. That special “freak flag” sometimes looks more like a neon sign flashing “Weirdo.”