On my third daughter’s first day of kindergarten, I was the one clinging to the gate, crying and asking her when she was coming back. She, on the other hand, was calm and excited to be with the other children.

But when she came home, she looked confused, as if she was trying to figure something out. When I asked her how se felt, she looked at me and said,

“Daddy… are we from a different country?”

I knew exactly what she meant.

In my clumsy, fatherly way, I tried to explain something I’m still trying to put into words all these years later—that feeling Don McLean captured when he said of Van Gogh that this world was not meant for someone as beautiful as he was.

I’m saddened, but not surprised, by how often I hear people say they don’t seem to quite fit in. The world feels alien. They know they are connected, but they feel different, sometimes unwanted, often as if they don’t fully belong.

That feeling can come from many places: childhood experiences, social constructs, cultural expectations, financial differences, physical differences, and the standards we place on ourselves and each other that quietly separate us.

And then there are those who, on the outside, appear to have all the qualities of the so-called “norm,” yet internally feel as if they’re from another planet.

There is a reason you feel different. The simple answer is… because you are.

But different does not mean wrong. Different does not mean broken. That difference may actually be your superpower. The only thing we have to do is accept it, understand it, and nurture it.

That’s what I would like to explore at this month’s gathering—why you sometimes feel different, and how to use that difference for your benefit and for the benefit of others.

 Please join me.

Wednesday, Mar 4, 2026 06:30 PM

 https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87814168399