Stranger in a Strange Land

May 10, 2015 – Manresa, Spain

Like Isabel, the main character in my Law School Heretic series, I’ve always felt like a stranger in a strange land. So it’s fitting that I publish my first blog post from Spain, my adopted country.

I’m a native of the Washington, D.C. area. Okay, I’ve had a couple of stints abroad (including several years in Barcelona), but I’ve lived in the D.C. area for most of my life. You really can’t get away from the politics-centered environment that is DC, but I love it. Like most of my close friends, I’m a self-professed political junkie. Whenever I leave DC, I enjoy the first few days away, where nobody asks you which candidate you support in the next presidential election. However, after a little while I miss the D.C. rat race.

Being a self-professed libertarian in DC, I’m a bit of an anomaly. Most people there assume you think like they do. The law school alumni event I attended the other day is an example of that. It was populated by lawyer/lobbyists.  When I tell people in DC what I think, they usually look at me as if I had horns. This event was no exception. I was met with comments such as, “Oh, so that’s how we roll…” Yes, that’s how I roll.

But I don’t mind feeling out of place. It’s a sentiment to which I’ve grown accustomed. Loners, INTJs, we’re comfortable with ourselves. We live in our heads. It’s all good.

In the U.S., some people ask me where I’m “really” from because, after all, I don’t speak Spanish with an American accent. In my hometown in Virginia, someone once asked me where I was from because I “had a little accent.” I’m from here! I said. And in Spain, many people think I’m French because that’s the language I speak with my kid. And my Argentine cousins make fun of my Castilian accent. People just don’t know what to do with me.

Like Isabel, I’m the odd man out. It’s always been like that. And I don’t mind. It’s good to keep people guessing. And, as I told someone at that lobbying event in DC, I only wear my horns for special occasions.