I've always considered myself to be a bit offbeat.

Back in my days of Girl Scouting, my friends in my Brownie troop made pretty crafts to bring home to their parents.

One time, they made little decorative wreaths out of green-painted jigsaw puzzle pieces.

But I didn't want to make a wreath. I made a miniature green alien to bring home to my mommy. I was proud to be creative.

I was also way too much of a finicky eater. As a 7-year-old, my friends tried to get me to eat my most abhorred food -- fresh red peppers.

I was a real whiner about it. In fact, I cried at the lunch table so my friends wouldn't make me eat those nasty red things. I didn't have to be like them if I didn't want to, right? I was proud to say that I didn't have to eat anything I didn't like.

Fashion has never been my forté either. In sixth grade, my friends came to class for the first day of middle school sporting their new, hip, straight-leg, sky-blue Lee jeans.

I refused. I wore nothing but spandex pants -- some of which were embarrassingly neon and flashy by today's standards -- for the next two years.

Jeans were too uncomfortable for me. I was proud not to wear the same clothes as everyone else.

Even when it came time to choose a foreign language in high school, I picked French instead of Spanish.

My sole reason for doing so was because I didn't want to take the same language as everyone else. I was proud that I made a different pick.

Sometimes I made bizarre choices because I was stubborn. Sometimes it was to be funny and make all my friends laugh.

Sometimes it was for the single reason that I wanted to be different than everyone else.

But mostly it was because I didn't care what other people thought. I was proud to be me.

Then something happened. As I grew up, I became a victim of society's tough and seemingly never-ending expectations. And I haven't been the same since.

Now, I'm not always so proud to be who I am, I'm embarrassed.

I often wonder what other people think of me. And I don't like to speak up in class because I'm often afraid I'll say something that is irrelevant to the discussion or won't be accepted.

I no longer have the same do-what-YOU-want attitude about everything that I used to, and it makes me upset.

Where did that frame-of-mind go and is it possible to get it back?

An answer to this question presented itself to me recently while pondering a magazine clipping that my mother posted on our refrigerator door. It stated: "Why try so hard to fit in when you were born to stand out?"

Especially as we get older I think it's easy to often lose sight of our individuality. It's easier to follow the paths of others rather than make our own. It's easy to try too hard to fit in.

Maybe sometimes we have to take a step back and embrace our uniqueness instead of embracing commonality. Be proud to be you.

In fact, be proud to be you while you're at a great age. You're living in a youthful environment that accepts you for who you are.

Take the advice from me, because I've watched my willingness to be unique dissipate over the years.

Only a little bit of it now remains and I often wonder where it will be in 30 years when I'm over-the-hill.

Embracing your individuality may be a broad goal, but it can be accomplished on a day-to-day basis.

Don't be afraid to wear different clothes. Speak out against accepted values. Make conscious decisions to be unique. Be proud to be you.

Hell, even wear pink spandex if you want.

Remember to do it now while you're in college and you can still get away with crazy things like that.