On Diversity: Making yourself stand out.

Diversity. What is it? Certainly not an old wooden ship as Ron Burgundy once thought. Something more profound, something intangible. Something like a terrior (tair-wah) of a wine. What is a terrior of a wine you ask? 
That, my friend, is the effect of environment, growing conditions, and soil among other things that bring the wine to its specific flavor. I think literally translated it means earth or soil in french, but it's suggestion of uniqueness is what makes it cool. Besides being cool to say as well. I remember the first time I really experienced this was in Italy for my honeymoon. We were at a wine tasting (go figure!) and the purveyor of these fine wines was sampling some from a specific vineyard. He showed us pictures or the exact plot where each wine came from: one was east facing and one was south facing. They were the exact same grapes. Same vineyard. Literally only a hundred or so yards separated these two plots. 
THEY TASTED ENTIRELY DIFFERENT. Their terrior was totally altered simply because of the slight adjustment in direction, distance, and soil. It was mind bottling (Get it, cause we are talking about wine?). 
Years later and a few kids into this parenting world I had been experimenting with tasting the terrior of a few different wines to a glass too many (in my wife's eyes- don't tell her I said that).  Well this extra glass got me waxing poetic on just about everything;  in life, on the difference in people, on weather. On the terrior of PEOPLE. Soylent green was people. But I suspect there was little to no terrior in Soylent Green. 
But the movie Soylent green is a perfect example. There is a certain person who has seen it, who will understand it, and further appreciate the reference. That person has some terrior. 
I was a weird kid. Some may argue I am a weird adult. But that doesn't bother me at all. Because deep down, I know I have terrior. I grew up on a pig farm with 13 acres of land to my disposal. I spent most of my days communing with nature, likely without shoes on (not by choice, I just couldn't focus long enough to find them) and exploring the world around me. One of my first forts was a run down old school outhouse (That's Terrior). I journeyed near and far with my brother, more than once injuring ourselves with a dull pocket knife as we tried our best to whittle our way to some creation we saw in the "American Boy's Handy Book". Shit. I even went through a phase where I fancied myself in a dress for my after school outfit (Terrior. And damn comfortable). Years later I don't know where that thing went but I appreciated it for the time being. Caitlin I was not. 
Let's move on to 6th grade. I was enrolled in the theater course in an elective. When went to vote for which play we should put on, My vote? Jesus Christ Superstar. In 6th grade. I mean, really? Who does that? I ultimately ended up playing Lancelot in a spoof of the round table story where we did manage to convince the instructor that it was absolutely necessary to gallop and bang coconuts together to simulate riding a horse, just like Monty Python. That's Terrior. 
The point of this isn't to exemplify how weird I was as a kid. The point of this is to highlight and encourage diversity. Make your terrior good. Make it diverse. Make your environment damn interesting. Don't wait for someone else to do it for you. I see too many folks out there cut from the same damn cloth, or made from the same damn vine. Jump ship, cross the vineyard, and wear a dress if you want. Just be interesting. Have some Terrior.