You Were Never Supposed to Be for Everyone

I have spent a surprising amount of my life being told some version of the same thing.

You’re too quiet. You’re hard to read. You’re too particular. You think too much. You do things differently. You’re weird.

Okay, yes, I am weird.

But I actually like weird.

And at some point, I stopped treating that like something I needed to correct.

Liking things a little differently

I love outer space.

I’m nerdy.

Give me planets, galaxies, black holes, weird theories about the universe, and anything that makes you realize how ridiculously small we are in comparison to everything that exists.

And yes, I believe there is extraterrestrial life out there.

Because are we really supposed to believe that in this enormous existence, with more stars, planets, and galaxies than we can even comprehend, we are the only ones here?

I don’t think so.

I am not saying someone is currently parking a spaceship behind my apartment building.

I am just saying I have questions.

I also think skunk smells good.

Not perfume-good. I still have some standards, haha.

But when I catch that smell outside... I do not hate it.

I have rules about food

I do not like the ends of things.

Bananas.

Hot dogs.

Probably several other foods I have mentally blocked from the list.

Anyone else like this? 😂

I cannot explain it scientifically, but yeah, that’s one of my quirks.

Normal has never been a particularly convincing argument

One of the things I have always struggled with is doing something simply because that is how people do it.

Why?

Who decided?

Because sometimes I genuinely enjoy doing the opposite of what everyone else is doing just to see if there is actually a reason behind the rule.

Sometimes there is.

Other times, you realize everyone is following the same protocol because everyone before them followed the same protocol.

And no one has stopped to ask whether it still makes sense.

I have never been especially good at that.

If everyone believes one thing, part of my brain immediately wants to examine the other side.

Not because I automatically think everyone else is wrong. 😏

But because I want to know why everyone is so comfortable assuming they are right.

There is a difference, haha.

I have never been especially good at pretending

Some people can walk into a room and immediately become whatever the room needs.

Warm.

Chatty.

Effortlessly social.

Appropriately enthusiastic.

I have always been more of a “this is the face you are getting” person.

It is not personal...uh, usually.

I have never been great at pretending to enjoy things I do not enjoy, acting impressed when I am not impressed, or making conversation just because silence has made someone else uncomfortable.

That has "on occasion" been interpreted as aloof. 

Difficult.

Too serious.

A little strange.

But there is a difference between being difficult and simply not being interested in performing.

And I'm not interested.

The list of things I was apparently supposed to fix

Smile more.

Talk more.

Be more approachable.

Do not be so picky.

Stop overthinking.

Relax.

Go with the flow.

Care less about the details.

Be more spontaneous.

Be less intense.

Be less quiet.

Be easier.

At some point, that becomes exhausting.

Spend too much time trying to become a version of yourself that is easier for everyone else to consume, and eventually you have to ask whether you even like the person you are “performing.”

So I stopped.

And became more selective about what I was willing to change.

Plus, you get to a certain age and you say fuck it.

Turns out, being particular is useful

I care about details.

A lot.

Sometimes excessively.

I will notice when a font is slightly off.

I will spend too much time deciding whether one sentence sounds better with three fewer words.

I care about packaging.

Names.

Spacing.

Colors.

The way something feels.

The way something sounds.

The way something is presented.

For years, that probably looked like overthinking.

Now it looks like creative direction.

Funny how that works.

The same thing that can make you “too particular” in one setting can become the exact reason something feels considered in another.

Context matters.

Quiet does not mean nothing is happening

I think quiet people get underestimated because so much of what we do happens internally.

We observe.

We think.

We question.

We edit.

We notice.

We form opinions we may or may not share.

We leave conversations with enough material to write three essays and one unnecessarily specific product description.

There is a lot going on.

We just do not always feel the need to narrate it in real time.

Moli Brew probably wouldn't exist if I had spent my whole life trying to be less observant.

The brand comes from noticing things.

The rules people follow without questioning.

The way women are expected to soften themselves.

The obsession with being likable.

The idea that confidence has to be loud.

The assumption that caffeine should transform your personality into a morning-show host.

No.

Some of us simply want better coffee and to be left alone to be ourselves.

The weird parts became the good parts

The resting face became part of the brand.

The dry humor became the voice.

The introversion became the perspective.

The selectiveness became a philosophy.

The obsession with details became the design language.

The unwillingness to be on camera led to Moli Ai.

The tendency to question normal became part of how I build.

Honestly, that last one might be the most important.

Instead of forcing myself into roles that did not fit, I started designing around who I actually am.

That is probably one of the more useful things I have learned.

You do not always have to fix the thing.

Sometimes you design around the thing.

Sometimes the thing becomes the whole point.

Get what I mean?

Maybe weird is just specific

The older I get, the more I think “weird” is often just another word for specific.

Specific taste.

Specific boundaries.

Specific humor.

Specific interests.

Specific opinions.

Specific questions.

Specific rules about food ends.

Specific thoughts about extraterrestrial life, dinosaurs, history, or whatever else happens to send you down a rabbit hole.

Whatever.

Specificity is useful.

It helps you know what you like.

What you don’t.

Who you want around.

What you want to build.

What you are willing to tolerate.

What you are not.

That sounds less like a flaw and more like a filter.

And I love filters, the block button, and removing shit that no longer serves me.

I am still weird

For the record, this is not one of those stories where I learned to love every single thing about myself and now wake up feeling deeply aligned with the universe.

No.

Some habits are annoying.

Some tendencies could probably use work.

I am still capable of overthinking something into the ground.

I still have very specific preferences.

I still do not want to attend half the things people invite me to.

I still sometimes want to do the opposite of what everyone else is doing purely because I need to know whether the rule has any actual merit.

I still think skunk smells kind of good.

I still refuse to eat the ends of certain foods.

And somewhere in the universe, I remain fairly confident somebody else is doing the exact same thing.

Possibly an alien. 👽🤎

Hopefully with good coffee.

So here we are

Moli Brew was never supposed to be for everyone.

That would actually be concerning.

It is for people who get it.

People with strong preferences.

People who like good coffee, good design, and a little sarcasm.

People who question things.

People who do not automatically confuse normal with correct.

People who have been called quiet, picky, intimidating, particular, difficult, weird, or some charming combination of the above.

Welcome.

We made a brand out of it.

And because it is my birthday month and I have decided this is an acceptable reason to celebrate being exactly this particular, everything at Moli Brew is 25% off through October 31 with code BIRTHDAY25.

Consider it a birthday gift.

From the weird founder.

Monica