Trifecta Challenge: Freak

This week's Trifecta Challenge was the word freak:

FREAK (noun)

1

a : a sudden and odd or seemingly pointless idea or turn of the mind

b : a seemingly capricious action or event

2

archaic : a whimsical quality or disposition

3

: one that is markedly unusual or abnormal: as

a : a person or animal having a physical oddity and appearing in a circus sideshow

b slang (1) : a sexual deviate (2) : a person who uses an illicit drug

c : hippie

d : an atypical postage stamp usually caused by a unique defect in paper (as a crease) or a unique event in the manufacturing process (as a speck of dirt on the plate) that does not produce a constant or systematic effect

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I’m a freak, an anomaly, an accident that wasn’t intended. I’ve accepted this as my place in the universe. Most everybody who has ever encountered me has considered me damaged and not worth much at all. I’ve been sneered at, a nose has been turned up at me a time or two. I’ve been passed around and discarded more times than I care to admit. That can damage somebody’s psyche just a bit.

It’s not my fault I was made this way. I had no say in the matter. If I had I definitely wouldn’t have been this. I didn’t choose this. And if I had? If I had made the conscious decision to be this way, would that have really made a difference? You’ll think what you want to think about who I am. I can’t ever change your mind.

And I’m okay with that because someone, just one person saw past what everybody else saw as something that was wrong with me, and saw that thing as special. Then I started to see it too. Then I believed it. That very thing that people saw as ugly was the what made me unique, different, and in its own special way, beautiful. I got put on display for the world to see and thrived through my defect, because of it.

Call me what you want to call me. I don’t care anymore. Because I know the truth, I can see it plainly. Call me all the names they’ve ever called, an error, a freak, an oddity. I may be an EFO, but that makes me valuable. I know my worth now and so does he. 

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So I took this challenge a little literally. I decided that the narrator of the piece should be a stamp that is considered a freak (definition 3d). Stamp freaks are errors in the printing process, I just learned. Some of them can be quite rare and valuable, but only if they go through the actual mail first.  I decided to use this as an allegory for any one who is devalued by our society.  People with genetic conditions, disorders, cerebral palsy, shunts, or even gay people who have been told they are limited, or not worth anyone's time, need to have or should have someone in their lives who know they are special and loves them for who they are. If you don't have that in your life, call me and I'll tell you you're worth something, give you a hug or tell you that you're loved.I'm a mother. I've got an endless supply of motherly love that would needs to be shared.