8 Lessons I Learned From My Alternative Parents

Above all, my parents taught me that it’s OK — and dare I say cool — to be weird. As an awkward middle schooler (and sometimes an ornery child . . . or adult), I often would complain that my parents were "not like other parents.” They stood out — for being loud and liberal in a conservative community, for preferring art galleries to rounds of golf, for not knowing a damn thing about sports. And their answer was always the same: "Would you really want to be like everybody else?" And they're right. I wouldn’t.