R. Eric Thomas didnt know he was different until the world told him so. Everywhere he wentwhether it was his rich, mostly white, suburban high school, his conservative black church, or his Ivy League college in a big cityhe found himself on the outside looking in.

In essays by turns hysterical and heartfelt, Thomas reexamineswhat it means to be an other through the lens of his own life experience. He explores the two worlds of his childhood: the barren urban landscape where his parents house was an anomalous bright spot, and the Eden-like school they sent him to in white suburbia. He writes about struggling to reconcile his Christian identity with his sexuality, the exhaustion of code-switching in college, accidentally getting famous on the internet (for the wrong reason), and the surreal experience of covering the 2016 election forElleonline, and the seismic changes that came thereafter. Ultimately, Thomas seeks the answer to these ever more relevant questions: Is the future worth it? Why do we bother when everything seems to be getting worse? As the world continues to shift in unpredictable ways, Thomas finds the answers to these questions by reenvisioning what normal means and in the powerful alchemy that occurs when you at last place yourself at the center of your own story.

Here for Itwill resonate deeply and joyfully with everyone who has ever felt pushed to the margins, struggled with self-acceptance, or wished to shine more brightly in a dark world. Stay here for itthe future may surprise you.