That's just NOT ME!

This began as a text to a friend.  But I wanted to just share it and see who else feels this way.

I was walking through a department store and I saw other guys my age that are just every day shmoes.  Frumpy with their bowl-haircuts, in their work-a-day lives, wearing the polo shirt  their wives bought them, merely plodding along.

The thought then occurred to me....stick with me, kids....

I was NEVER meant to be "average".  I wasn't designed to be content with a 40 hr week, 9-5 timeclock-punching bullshit existence.

It just wasn't me, and that die was cast from a VERY young age.  I began singing in church at the age of 6. I could belt out "Amazing Grace" like no one's business.  I didn't have to be PUSHED into it...I did it on my own. I REQUESTED to be able to sing a "special".  I began learning to play guitar at the age of 8, with only a guitar and a chord chart.  My father gave me the only music lesson I ever had in my entire life.  He said "IF you want to learn, you'll learn".  Simple.  I now play 16 (UPDATE 3/16/24: That has now turned into 18) instruments, I thought myself every single one of them, I have never taken a lesson, and I don 't read a lick of music. I play by ear, and always have.  I started singing in local bands from about the age of 13, and covered everything from The Temptations, to Cameo, to Full Force, to Earth Wind & Fire, to Iron Maiden, to Coheed and Cambria.  I do anything from classic Italian ballads, to Rob Zombie. I am a dynamic, charismatic individual. A leader, a learner, a teacher, a master, and a pupil.  I've driven every tank from the M48A5 up to the M1A1, i've road marched AND ran Misery, Agony, and Heartbreak (anyone who went through Ft. Knox knows what i'm talking about).  I've jumped out of perfectly good aircraft, and can put a bullet up a flea's ass at 1600 meters.

What i'm saying, is not to be as bragadocious as it sounds.  I'm trying to illustrate my point.  I'm not an "average" cat. I never have been.  I wasn't designed to be.  I've been fortunate enough to have wonderful children, and now grandchildren.....but even THEY will tell you, i'm not the average Dad.  They have a dad who introduces them to rockstars and hip hop gods, a dad who they have seen onstage, rocking a crowd for an hour straight, then coming home and having fresh homemade canolis ready for breakfast the next morning.

Fuck it.  Call me cocky, arrogant, asshole, too big for my own britches...tell me i'm smellin myself..

But don't even TRY to tell me I'm "Average".  I'm anything BUT.  And I was NEVER MEANT to be anything short of....

EXTRAORDINARY.