Schools throughout the country encourage their students to be creative and think outside of the box by having special themed days such as Wear Your Pajamas to School Day, Crazy Hair Day, and Opposite Day. On Opposite Day, kids wear their hats, T-shirts or pants backwards and sometimes dress up like their parents or wear mismatched shoes. But an eight-year-old elementary school kid used the occasion to make a statement about bravery, acceptance, and creativity.
Instead of wearing his clothes inside out like all of the other kids, Henry dressed as a girl, wearing a headband, pigtails, and a tank top. Henry knew that dressing like a girl was risky and could make him a target for bullies but he took the risk because he wanted to challenge the school’s norms. “It made me embarrassed and excited because I was doing something no one else was doing,” said Henry. “My friends told me that I was being brave and that they would not be brave enough to do that.”
Elementary school may be a place where conformity rules, but Henry’s message is something adults should hear, too. Every day adults are forced to conform to the social norms at their workplaces and in their neighborhoods because it’s risky to stand out or rock the boat. “Find your own way. You don’t have to follow the crowd,” Henry wrote. “I think this is a way to gather your strength because I think it means go your own way in life. You do not have to do what everyone else is doing.”
