18 Things Only People Who Were The “Eccentric Child” Of The Family Understand

1. Whenever your class was taking a field trip to a museum or something similar, you complained about how boring it would be along with all the other kids. But secretly, you were so excited, you could barely contain yourself.

2. Your pets were never named “Buddy” or “Spot.” You preferred to use names that were more unusual for a pet, such as “Archibald” or “Señor Meowsalot.” The more human your animal’s name could sound, the better.

3. …And giving your pet a middle name was an absolute. No questions asked.

4. As soon as your parents told you that you were old enough to dress yourself, you took it and ran with it. There was no such thing as matching your shirt with your pants, or saving wigs for Halloween-time only. You dressed however the hell you wanted to, and if a cape had to be involved, then so be it.

5. At family parties, you usually got bored of playing with the other kids and ended up making your way into the kitchen to munch on cashews and listen to the adults talk about stuff that was actually kind of interesting to you.

6. You had a variety of fun facts about the most random possible subjects hidden up your sleeve at all times. You loved informing your friends about the exact number of penguins a polar bear can eat in one sitting, or about the approximate number of hairs on a human head.

7. …But for some reason, your friends and siblings and classmates were not interested in awesome pieces of information like fact that The Little Mermaid was originally a super dark and depressing story written by the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen.

8. Other kids liked Harry Potter. You, on the other hand, wrote fan fiction or brewed homemade Butterbeer in your kitchen (it was disgusting) or had a countdown calendar in your room that informed you of how much longer it was until the next book was released. You didn’t just like Harry Potter or The Lord of the Rings. You wanted to live it.

9. Sure, you enjoyed playing basketball or Capture the Flag with the other neighborhood kids. But you also had just as much fun putting on a play or reading about the mating rituals of catfish.

10. You learned what the word “quirky” meant at a young age, because it was one of your various teachers’ favorite ways to describe you.

11. You often had unfortunate incidents happen to you that led to you really resonating with the character of Eugene from Hey Arnold. *crash* “…I’m okay.”

12. One of your favorite hobbies was experimenting with your own personal appearance, which led to instances where you gave yourself a horrible haircut, or drew all over your face with Sharpies, or decided that it was definitely a good idea for you to shave off your eyebrows. It wasn’t.

13. You were all about the freaky shows and books as a kid – Are You Afraid of the Dark, Goosebumps, whatever you could get your hands on. But you also never turned down a good Zoobook or Babysitter’s Club masterpiece.

14. Other kids loved Play-Doh or Silly Putty. You were more flabbergasted about what the hell it was and you were really more interested in eating it.

15. Come wintertime, you usually wanted to wear the weirdest, most peculiar hats and gloves and scarves that you could find. If you were going to have to be bundled up, you might as well have looked cool while you were doing it.

16. …And the same goes for the snowmen you used to build. No simple top hat and carrot nose for them. Your snowmen had to have vests and watches and Skittle eyeballs and nose rings and whatever else you could steal out of the house when your mom wasn’t looking.

17. You put an insane amount of effort into really random or obscure goals, such as memorizing all the words to “One Week” by the Barenaked Ladies. You’re still ready to bust out “Chickity China the Chinese chicken” at the drop of a hat.

18. You know without a doubt that being the “eccentric” child has affected you even into adulthood, but you wouldn’t change a thing. You love being who you are, you love the fact that everybody is peculiar in their own way, and you love nothing more than finding fellow oddballs or colorful friends that you can spend all your time with.