People think being right feels good.
Sometimes it does.
Most of the time, being right too early just makes you look weird.
I've noticed this pattern my entire life.
I'll see something coming. Not because I'm psychic. Not because I'm special. Usually because I'm paying attention to details other people have written off as unimportant.
A shift in someone's behavior.
A change in the way a company is operating.
A problem that's been ignored for months.
An argument that's quietly building toward an explosion.
A relationship that's already over even though nobody has admitted it yet.
I mention what I'm seeing.
People laugh.
People tell me I'm overthinking.
People tell me I'm dramatic.
Then the thing happens.
Strangely, that's not the satisfying part.
The satisfying part should be watching everyone acknowledge that maybe I saw something worth noticing.
Instead, most people quietly rewrite history.
The thing was obvious.
The thing was inevitable.
Everybody knew.
The same people who looked at me like I had three heads suddenly act like nobody could have missed it.
So I get to be wrong while I'm early and invisible when I'm right.
I've started to realize that what hurts isn't being doubted.
It's that nobody lets me stop being the weird one.
Nobody says:
"Hey. Good catch."
"How did you see that?"
"You were paying attention when the rest of us weren't."
That's all most pattern-spotters want.
Not a trophy.
Not a parade.
Just acknowledgment.
Maybe that's why I've become less interested in convincing people.
If I see smoke, I'll still mention the fire.
If I hear the boom, I'll still run toward it to see whether somebody needs help.
But I'm getting older, and I've learned something important:
Not everyone values observation.
Not everyone values prediction.
Not everyone values the person who points at a crack in the wall before the ceiling comes down.
Sometimes the people around you are so committed to seeing you as "the weird one" that no amount of being right changes the role they've assigned you.
When that happens, the answer isn't screaming louder.
The answer is finding people who understand the difference between weird and perceptive.
When I am wrong I own that shit though, and I learn and grow from it. I am nothing if not honest.
About the Creator
Syl De'Vil
Air Force SF veteran, mother, witch, Bone collector, gremlin. skip tracer, I throw knives, and write about life and love and the lack there of all stitched from insomnia. I am just a girl, looking in the void, trying to fit in where I don't
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