The first time I heard this dialogue was when I watched this movie ‘He is just not that into you!’ .As the title says, it is a movie basically for girls who just don’t get it sometimes that the guy they are trying to date/dating is just not that into them. The one thing that stuck with me after I finished watching the movie was this dialogue that I am an exception and not a rule. And slowly I began to do a little bit of self introspection. Though, I may not have used the same exact words, but being girly as I could be sometimes: P, I also always have felt the same way. I always wanted to be an exception and not a rule. To me that was not just cool but also a way to get people’s attention. I always wanted to stand out from the crowd. It’s funny, it’s not just me, but almost everyone wants to be an exception and not a rule at some point in life. What happens at such times is that, we get this paradigm into our heads that in any situation, where normally the output is something very predictable, we expect miracles to happen, because we are an exception and cannot accept anything else. But I also noticed that the more I wanted to be exception, the more situations would prove me just a mere rule. In the process of trying to be an exception, I often failed to realize that I first have to be a rule in order to be an exception that rule. So what am I really talking about here? Well let me give some examples, as a kid, I wanted to be the most favorite grandkid of my grandparents, in school, I wanted to be the most favorite student of teachers and then once I went to college, I wanted to be the girl that all guys would want to befriend etc. However in every stage, I had experiences which proved that although I was often trying to be an exception, I was no more than a rule. Paradoxically many times, I did nothing really to become an exception, but it was a just a strong thought and wish in my head that I want to be special. On a positive side, it led me to work harder for anything I did, but on the negative side, it led to nothing more than disappointments, a low self esteem and trying too hard to eventually give up. So, I decided to stop paying attention to these things, though I got to be honest about the fact that even now for some extremely personal situations in life, I still only want to be an exception and not a rule. But overall, I decided to just do what I feel like, do whatever makes me happy and accept reality with a broad mind, instead of paying attention to being an exception. I have also come to realize that, each of us have something special which makes us unique and different from others. So being yourself is the best way to automatically become an exception. Besides, the other thing here is that it is not wrong to strive to be the best but striving hard to be different doesn’t help much. Afterall, being too different doesn’t always make us special and loved, besides, you got to live your life for yourself and not just to look exceptional in the eyes of others.