People Have Different Tastes

Something that has always bothered me is when people end up absolutely befuddled because I didn’t watch a certain children's show or listen to a particular song. I’ve had numerous people gawk at me because of this as though it’s some unspoken requirement of humanity to all watch and listen to the same things. What’s popular to you doesn’t necessarily mean it’s popular to someone else. Granted, I know there are videos that go viral and songs that make it to the top ten and shows that people rave about worldwide. I have still managed to avoid that though, for the most part. It isn’t intentional, I just generally immersed myself in what I found interesting to me. I grew up listening to what my mother played from her ipod or CDs and I watched more movies than I did TV shows. I never really had a vessel to explore music tailored to me or videos I personally enjoyed until I was in about ninth or tenth grade. 
I received an ipad for christmas and downloaded a knock-off version of youtube that allowed me to play music while using another app. That was when I started exploring. When my younger sister was looking up epic music to use jokingly in a school project, I found that I actually really enjoyed it. Epic instrumental music and movie scores were the shit I loved to listen to. It took me a wee while actually to branch out from that and find songs with words. I wanted something with the same feel, same use of instrumental abundance. The band Of Monsters and Men took me in a different direction though, interesting sounding vocals. I’m a sucker for accents so listening to foreign bands gave me that satisfaction. I never fell into a boy/girl band phase, I either wanted a mix of both or just a strong male or female vocalist. So when One Direction became a sensation, I just pretended to be a fan. I wanted to be a part of the community of people that adored one thing, whether it was a band, a song, a show, a clothing trend. It simply never fit with what I enjoyed though. There were rare moments when I felt that inclusion with appreciating something but it was often few and far between. 
I watched Nickelodeon as a child, but it was mostly Spongebob Squarepants and iCarly sprinkled in between. H2O: Just Add Water was a favorite as well. I still managed to miss a ridiculous amount of shows there though. Still managed to baffle people with my lack of indulgence. The thing is, I watched an episode or so and then I was done for the day, so that episode was from the one channel I knew to get to. Netflix wasn’t a thing yet, hell, flat TVs weren’t a thing yet. Channel 37 was all I knew so dammit that’s what I hit on the remote. Also, like I said, I was also a big movie fan. I watched Titanic religiously with my younger sister, we were about four and six years old. Eventually our parents banned us from it because they were so sick of it. Our love for it was rediscovered two years later so that was a fun thing to relive. We liked Disney movies but not as much the old classics like Snow White, more like Mulan and Pirates of the Carribean. This of course led me to be considered a fake Disney fan since I wouldn’t watch as many princess movies. Barbie movies on the other hand were a blast to watch but that doesn’t count, so again I was on the edge of the crowds.
I never bothered to follow clothing trends, I was poor, then I moved to a small town where going to Vancouver only happened twice a year for us. Buying the next trendy thing wasn’t something I could do when most of my clothes were hand-me-downs or from what I found at the thrift store. On top of that, I have a habit of wanting to look like the last character I saw in a movie that I like. I’m a fiend for overcoats because of that. I was more interested in looking like I popped out of another time period than keeping up with a trend that would last a week and come around again ten years later. If there was an in-style look I fancied, I always ended up acquiring it late and then it didn’t even matter if I caught up, the world already moved on.
Video games were never really present in my life, until we got a Wii. That became addicting for awhile but even then, my parents never really had to urge me outside much because I loved being outside. I thrive among trees, grass, and creeks. I would wake up early and sneak out of the house before my sister woke up just so I could have an hour of poking around ditches and bushes with a stick, pretending it was alive and I was narrating its existence like the gent from Planet Earth. My group of friends would play manhunt in the woods or make up civilizations in my backyard. We would be out in the neighbourhood streets from late morning to twilight. Of course those that didn’t do that as kids wondered why I was so horrible at video games and never saw all the episodes of anything because I was never in front of the TV that much. Even though I had a small herd, I still felt isolated from the much larger herd of people familiar with something I wasn’t.
I’ve been in dance classes all my life from when I was two so no, I don't know how to navigate an Xbox. I grew up listening to Enya, Simon and Garfunkel, and opera, so no, Katy Perry wasn’t someone I jammed out to. I’m a shy, awkward introverted bookworm so no, I never went to parties. I don’t have a lot of money so no, I don’t really buy brand name clothing. I’m not trying to sound like I’m such a one-of-a-kind, not like the others, clearly a quirky and unique person. What I”m trying to say is, there are loads of people like that, loads of people that find joy in the less known, the more obscure, the sub-genre of things. 
People forget that just because they grew up one way, knowing the things they learned and seeing the things they saw, does not mean everyone else did too. The world is a grand place because there is so much to offer, so to ridicule, tease, taunt, shame those that dwell in something different than you is stupid. We don’t all have to agree with one another’s tastes but we should at least appreciate the fact that we have different tastes and aren’t instead clones that all march to the same destination without knowing why. So whilst someone plays Assassin’s Creed or goes to a club or reads a book or takes a hike or browses a mall, I’m writing a blog and doing any of those things is wonderful. 
Do what makes you happy, and be happy that others are doing what makes them happy because the happier we all are, the more tolerant we’ll be of everyone’s differences.