All my life, I have been an avid reader. It started when I was in the 4th grade with the Hardy Boys Mysteries, and Jack London’s Call of the Wild, and White Fang. When I was twelve, I read my first “big-boy” book.

It was about Albert Einstein. He gave me a valuable lesson in life, even if I didn’t realize it at the time. I have tried to find that book, but have yet to do so. But I did find a recent book entitled Einstein: His Life and Universe Kindle Edition by Walter Isaacson written in 2007. It is over 700 pages long, so I guess that makes it a “big-boy” book, doesn’t it? I have already read 50 pages, and it is very similar to what I remember.

Getting to the core of this post. Much of Einsteins childhood years were like mind. Among many other similarities, I was bored by all the stuff of grade school, and especially the slow pace it was taught. I was caught by how he considered himself to be so much different from the school yard mates around him. When I read those words about Einstein, I kinda thought that maybe it was ok to be different, as he turned out pretty well.

It would be years later before I discovered that Einstein and I shared a common trait, and that is we are both Aspies, but since that name had yet to be invented, he was only known as a “shy” kid who kept to himself. Another thing we shared was that we were both quite a bit above normal in intelligence. His IQ was believed to be between 160 – 180. That is at the very top of the spectrum. My IQ was measured as 135, which is in the top 2%, but nothing compared to him.

The thing that this book did for me at that time in my very young life was to see that it is ok to be different. That was a lesson I seriously needed as I was approaching those difficult teenage years.

It’s OK To Be Different

After that book, I went on to read hundreds, perhaps thousands, more. Many of them were about U.S. History, especially biographies of historical people. I kept many of those books over the years, but all books now reside on my Kindle reader. The rest were donated to public libraries.

One of the major goals of RJsCorner has always been to show you that it is ok to be different. In fact, we should all celebrate our individual differences, and the diversity that results from them.

Let’s close out this post with where it began.

Now I Understand, What You Tried To Say To Me…

I kinda merged a couple of thoughts into one space for this title. The original thought f or the title came from the song entitled “Vincent” by Don Maclean from 1971 about Vincent van Gogh, who was another person who lived his life struggling with who he was. But, it also fit well with the message for a twelve-year-old who was at the beginning of his own life challenges. That book about Einstein taught me it’s ok to be different.