You’ve heard the saying “Don’t fit square pegs in round holes”. Well, if you’ve read my blog previously, you know that I have this bad habit of standing old sayings and idioms on their heads. So today I’m battling with fitting my round peg of myself into square holes of society.

All my life I’ve been the round peg just barely fitting into the square holes. I leaned towards left handedness, but my Mom retrained me to be right-handed. Despite the fact that I was a boy, I was a good student throughout grade school…I could even sit still in class. I enjoyed the company of older folks, like my grandmother more than running around with crazy teenagers. I just didn’t fit the norms of society.

Over time, I’ve become OK with it. My kids think I’m goofy, and so does my Mom. But it’s alright, I’m OK with who I am. I prefer to do our cooking at home. I do many of the household chores. I do 95% of our grocery shopping. Most of the laundry is done on my watch. Pretty much I’m a “house Dad”. Nevermind that I run a couple of businesses from our house, the household chores still tend to fall my way. Not 100% of them, and not that they are all done that great, but I do a lot of the household management. That makes me really weird to my Mom. It’s just not something that was done in her generation.

When I look at my kids I see them also not quite fitting into the square holes that society has presented to them. They fill their roles nicely, but there is still room around their sides that have gaps.

But it’s really alright.

When I think about it, I’d rather have to stretch a little bit to meet the sides of the holes that society has in mind rather than overfilling, or just meeting the expectations set out for me. I want room to grow. To wiggle. To really have to strive to do what needs to be done. And I want the same thing for my kids. Is it uncomfortable at times? Sure. Does it mean that we struggle a little bit. You betcha! But that’s where the growth comes in.

If we were perfectly fit into the holes of society, there would be no room for growth. All we would feel is the friction against the walls…nowhere to expand. What kind of life would that be?

So today I’m gladly fitting myself into the square holes that society has placed in my life’s path as a proud round peg.

How about you…how closely do you fit what everyone else expects of you? Are you a proud round peg?