How to Talk About Your Unconventional Background in a Conventional World

Good Lord, I could have used this advice about a million times in my life.

The Art of Manliness: How to Talk About Your Unconventional Background in a Conventional World

Favorite snippets:

"Today’s working world tends to reward people who live plain vanilla, cookie-cutter lives. Anyone who has an “unorthodox” background outside of the norms tends to be written off, or at a minimum, faces an uphill battle explaining their background to potential employers, landlords, and possible future in-laws."

"5. Be Vulnerable and Share Your Insecurities
Whenever you share stories about your unusual background, it might put others on the defensive, especially if your background is so sensational or unusual that simply talking about your achievements sounds like bragging. If your experiences seem amazing (especially in comparison to others’ mundane lives), you might inspire some jealousy."

"Ultimately, your past background or experiences are insignificant. What matters the most is what you make of it, and if you are able to connect with people and have them relate to your story."

That last one is what people need to understand about people with "unconventional backgrounds". It's just their lives to them: it's not that big of a deal. People think you're bragging, or lying, so you eventually learn to try not to bring it up. But really, you're just talking about your life, like everyone else does. Most of the time, you're not even thinking about how sensational it probably sounds to others. It's just stuff that you did, and it always sounds cooler than it really was. Like Harry Potter said:

"Listen to me!" said Harry, almost angrily, because Ron and Hermione were both smirking now. "Just listen to me, all right? It sounds great when you say it like that, but all that stuff was luck -- I didn't know what I was doing half the time, I didn't plan any of it, I just did whatever I could think of, and I nearly always had help --"'
Ron and Hermione were still smirking and Harry felt his temper rise; he wasn't even sure why he was feeling so angry.
"Don't sit there grinning like you know better than I do, I was there, wasn't I?" he said heatedly. "I know what went on, all right? And I didn't get through any of that because I was brilliant at Defense Against the Dark Arts, I got through it all because -- because help came at the right time, or because I guessed right -- but I just blundered through it all, I didn't have a clue what I was doing -- STOP LAUGHING!"
The bowl of Murtlap essence fell to the floor and smashed. He became aware that he was on his feet, though he couldn't remember standing up. Crookshanks streaked away under a sofa. Ron and Hermione's smiles had vanished.
"You don't know what it's like! You -- neither of you -- you've never had to face him, have you? You think it's just memorizing a bunch of spells and throwing them at him, like you're in class or something? The whole time you're sure you know there's nothing between you and dying except your own -- your own brain or guts or whatever -- like you can think straight when you know you're about a nanosecond from being murdered, or tortured, or watching your friends die -- they've never taught us that in their classes, what it's like to deal with things like that -- and you two sit there acting like I'm a clever little boy to be standing here, alive, like Diggory was stupid, like he messed up -- you just don't get it, that could just as easily have been me, it would have been if Voldemort hadn't needed me --" J.K. Rowling