looking back for breadcrumbs
“Being an alien is just being yourself, when people don't understand you. We just trying to let everybody know there's a place for everybody in this world. You just gotta find yourself, and be true to yourself. That's how you get prosperous and happy."
-Andre 3000
This week, the album ATLiens by Outkast turned thirty, which is hard to believe, given what that means about my age.
ATLiens came out my freshman year of high school—I remember this without having to check the date because I remember starting every Anatomy and Physiology class by reciting Big Boi’s “so, so fine…”, from the song Elevators, to my friend every time a particular young lady passed me on the way to her seat. And for the curious minds, no, I never told her.
I knew of Outkast from their first album, Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik**,** and was a fan, but it was ATLiens that turned me into a superfan and made them one of my favorite groups. I still listen to ATLiens regularly to this day, and when I first started collecting vinyl records a few years ago, it was the first album I purchased.
Needless to say, ATLiens is a special album to me, beyond just being a classic.
In the celebration of the album’s anniversary on social media, I discovered a breadcrumb that ties the album to the current version of my Self: the Andre 3000 quote above.
Thirty years ago, a young Andre encouraged people to live an Authentic Life—the album title signaled that it was ok to be your Self, even if that meant that, to others, you appeared an alien.
I didn’t know it until now that my connection to the album was much deeper than my appreciation of the music. A little breadcrumb from the past letting me know I’ve always been on this path towards the Authentic Life—and you can’t convince me that it’s anything else.
Don’t dismiss the breadcrumbs you discover and the message they are delivering.
See you tomorrow and keep pursuing,
JC
🦅 Some ways I might be able to help you live your authentic life:
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