Underachievers Anonymous

Hi, my name is Mike, and I'm an underachiever.
Hi Mike.
I called this first official meeting of UA to discuss Underachievers and the torture they go through. I'll tell my story first.

I've been an underachiever all my life, but didn't realize it until I was about 6 or 7. You see, my family has had high expectations from me since birth. They expected me to excel at everything, to be the life of the party, to even be *gasp* President Fox someday.
Then something happened. Or should I say, nothing happened. Oh, I did okay in school, but I never excelled. I was always the quiet one, the one sitting in the corner, sometimes voluntarily, sometimes not. I'd be the one with his nose buried in a book, the one with a dreamy look in his eye, that some might confuse with either sleeping or drugs. It was neither.
My personality type is INTP. If you need to know more about that, look it up. The gist of it is that I'm neither a follower, nor a leader. Some would call it non-conformist, but I'd just call it doing what I want.
People expected me to be like my brothers, outgoing in sports, or help in the kitchen like my sisters, without being asked, or so many things I could fill this blog with them. The fact is, I didn't turn out like anyone planned or hoped.
Why? Certainly I'm smart. I'm not a complete invalid when it comes to doing things. I don't do what they want because it just doesn't interest me. I have spent years trying to overcome what other people want me to be.
My mother was as outgoing as they come, so my introversion didn't make sense to her. She would prod me into doing things I didn't really want to do.
I overheard my mother once, when I was a teen and had just said something funny. 'See, he does have a sense of humor.' She said that to my stepfather. More on him in another blog.
My brothers and sisters, after giving it the old college try, decided I wasn't worth the effort, and have for the most part left me alone. I'm something of a black sheep.
I did, on occasion, try to break out of that mold, out of my own little world. I ran for class president in 4th and 10th grade. Worst - decision - ever.
I didn't win because while I had a few close friends, I had not made friends with the rest of the class. They didn't know me, or care about me.
But that's okay. I decided long ago that I didn't care about them either.
Well, that's not completely true. I find myself thinking about romances that never happened because I was too shy to act on them. More on those in other blogs.
Even in the jobs I've had I've been an underachiever; never quite what people expect. When I do let people see the true me, either through writing or conversation, the one comment I keep hearing is 'What the hell are you doing working here?'
I'm there because I'm an underachiever. I'm not proud of it, but I've grown to accept it. But I have goals in life, and the reason I have not achieved great things is because I've always lived under someone else's expectations. The pressure on me drove me away from where I should have been. But I expect great things of myself, and if I've chosen my own timeline and methods of getting there, well then I've finally achieved at least one thing: independence.
And for those of you who don't understand why someone you know isn't doing as well as you would have thought, here's an idea: Leave them alone. Give them emotional support, financial support if needed, let them know you're there, then just lean back and watch, from a distance. You may be surprised at what they can accomplish.

I'm done. Any other takers? Hello? Anyone out there. Oh, I forgot, no one else showed up. Damn underachievers.