The Ugly Duckling

Once upon a time there was an unusual little duckling.  The duckling always found herself feeling like she never quite fit in.  She was a little bit smarter than these ducks.  She was a little bit odder than these other ducks.  She was a misfit, but she tried her best to pretend that she was just like everyone else.  No one really picked on her or excluded her, but it seemed to get harder and harder to keep up with.  As she grew, her little circle of ducks dwindled until it seemed that she was all alone.  Looking back, she realized that most of the ducks weren't all that nice to her, and she felt even more alone thinking that the few ducks she thought were her friends really just used her.

Then the unusual little duckling hit her mid-life crisis and decided to try therapy again because she just felt like everything was unraveling, in particular, her sanity.

Several weeks into digging around in her head, she said something that made a light bulb go off in the therapist's head.  She said she never felt like she ever really fit in.  And he said, maybe that's because you're not a duck.  How can you feel like you belong with all these ducks when you're obviously a swan?  

A swan?

Not that swans are better than ducks or vice versa.... swans just aren't ducks.  So now the weird little not-a-duck has to go out and figure out where to find other swans.  Maybe all this time she kept pretending to be a duck was part of the reason she felt sad a lot.  Because she tried to hide the things that weren't duck-like.  The things that made her happy. 

Now the swan is going to figure out how to be a swan.  Maybe it will take some time figuring that out.  She could find herself among egrets or pelicans before she finds the swans, but she's excited to take on the adventure.