4 Common Traits of a Born Bohemian

I knew I was bohemian before I even knew what the word meant. I was unlike everyone else and I took fierce pride in my independence. Looking back, I can honestly say I lived these behaviors for as long as I could remember, and they got me my father’s belt and my mother’s open-handed slaps across the face. A few minutes after my mother slapped me her hand would turn purple from the tiny little blood vessels that burst. I would laugh and taunt her to hit me again. Yep, I refused to conform.

1. Refusal to conform: Don’t tell me what I’m doing is wrong. I’ll do what I want to do. I repeatedly broke the mold and to this day I’m the black sheep of the family. And to this day, I don’t care.
2. Wander, travel, remove yourself from status quo: I was too young to travel so at 16 I accepted a family friend’s offer to move in with them. I lived with them through high school and after graduation moved into my own apartment in a house they rented. My parents never forgave me for this.
3. Follow your spirit: I took in a homeless child the year after I was emancipated. In retrospect, I did this to create the family I never had. Any family was better than the family I was born into. This put the final nail in the coffin of my relationship with my family.
4. Speak the truth: I never lied. Life would have been easier had I just embellished a bit. But I never did because I never could. The truth was evident to everyone who knew me. I was the one people avoided because my truth was uncomfortable to others to see. No one in my family tried to help me, and that succeeded in making me stronger.

Now, as an adult, I’m grateful that I chose this path, because my strength kept me alive at I time when I could have so easily ended up at the bottom of the rabbit hole.