It can make you feel alone, lonely, isolated … faceless, nameless, voiceless … like you don’t have a say in decisions that concern you.

But it can also give you a unique perspective on the people around you or on your society as a whole. A friend of mine always says, “The onlooker sees most of the game.” Being an outsider forces you to examine the assumptions and preconceptions of your society, and to come to your own conclusions about things.

Being an outsider can be very lonely. But, as Henrik Ibsen wrote in his play “An Enemy of the People”, “The strongest man in the world is he who stands most alone.”