Otherkin

I think that it's all about labels. Maybe I make connections where there are none, but what one person dubs "X" the other dubs "Y" and that doesn't change what the actual thing is. The only thing that varies is who is dubbing it. One person calls a person a "Were" and another person calls the same person "MPD" and yet another calls that person "delusional"... the person doesn't change according to who is dubbing them. They are who and what they are.

If you want to call yourself a "Wood Nymph", then by all means do so. It really doesn't matter what the labelers say a Wood Nymph is. By dubbing yourself a "Wood Nymph", you help to define just what a Wood Nymph actually is. Let others who do not call themselves Wood Nymphs change their definition. If talking to other Wood Nymphs helps to settle your mind about whether or not you're a Wood Nymph, that's fine... just don't let people put a label on you blindly. Know what I mean? Ultimately, you're the one who matters when it comes to your label. No one knows you better than you do.

I'm a rather unique person, and I'm sure that I could fall into the Otherkin camp as easily as I could fall into the Were, Vamp, Pagan, Witch, Priest, Transsexual, Intersexed, Bisexual, Transgendered, Man, Guy, Human, Old-head, Goth, Punk, Polywere, MPD, PTSD, OCD, Anal Retentive, etc., etc., ad nauseam camps. It sometimes feels good to have a label... it helps to make you feel less alone. Other times it just plain sucks. Labels often keep us in our little box and out of the boxes of others which are a lot more fun.

I've been called "Angel" and "Alien" and "Freak"... some are awed by me, others are scared of me. If I adopt a label like "Otherkin", it might help to make others understand that although I'm different, I'm nothing unnatural. I'd do this because of my own fear. I fear others, so I go to great lengths to stop their hands before they strike me. When I look at it this way, I tend to drop all the labels. Something motivated by fear is not something I want to do. True, it might be a whole hell of a lot easier to fit in somewhere and have an army of like-labeled people on my side, but things that are easy do nothing to strengthen me. I'm not too sure what life is all about, and I may never know, but my gut says that there is some sort of reward for suffering... even if it's just to serve as a lesson to others.

Every now and again I like to relax and slap a label on. I need a break every so often. Generally speaking though, "_" is the only label I wear. Even "I" doesn't always fit. I can say, "I am", but then "I" is often "We". There are just too many labels and it gets tiring shifting them around and defining them and adding and subtracting to the collection.

If you have the desire to add "Otherkin" and "Wood Nymph" to your own personal collection, then you should. It's something that you have to decide on for yourself though. Don't ask for membership to the club, it's not up to them to decide whether or not you belong. It's up to you to decide whether or not you want to belong. The others will leave if they find your presence discomforting.

I'm babbling, I suppose. I don't really know if what I'm thinking is coming across through these words.

You know who you are. Don't let other people confuse you about that. No one knows you better than yourself. It's YOUR universe. You are the center of it... no matter what label you wear... and when you add a label, you define what it means in your own universe.

So... are you a Wood Nymph?

You tell me.