I Thought Everyone Was a Golden Retriever

I didn’t realize I was different until I hit my mid-30s.

Not different in the “chosen one” way.
Different in the golden retriever way.

For most of my life, I thought we were all chasing butterflies together — playful, curious, vaguely magical. I figured everyone had one paw in the spirit world. I didn’t feel out of place. I just felt… me.

But as I got older, something shifted.
Friends stopped chasing butterflies.
They stopped looking at the sky.
They stopped remembering.

And I realized:

Oh…
You’re not golden retrievers.
You’re something else.

That realization didn’t come with fanfare.
It came with grief. And then clarity.
And then a strange kind of mission.

Because once you know you see the world differently,
You have a choice to make.

You can shut it down.
Or you can let it shine —
and find the others.

Some never stopped chasing butterflies — they just thought they were alone.

You’re not.

-K