Through second grade I was the new kid every year. When my Mom, Brother, Sister, and I moved to Idaho Falls we were different from other kids. Our neighbors lived in houses all their lives. Eating at resturants was a luxury. Staying in a motel was a vacation. Traveling farther than an hour in a day rarely happened. We were raised outside the rules of a normal childhood.

Growing up in a small town my family didn’t fit in. Our stories of traveling across the country fell so far outside our peers rules of life they accused us of lying. By high school my peers associated rebellion and rule breaking with my name. Twenty years later I moved away from the small town. When I visit Idaho Falls those who knew me recognize my face but in short order figure out that I’m not a troublemaker and rebel. I work in technology, spend time with family, quit drinking, don’t smoke, own a house, pay taxes, and work hard to be a good person.

What my peers in high school and myself at the time didn’t know is that I like rules. I like to know the rules and follow the rules. When I broke the rules in high school I broke them to push back against the popular crowd, the parents who taught their kids intolerance. I stood up for those who were bullied and called weird. I rebelled to say,

“We are not like everyone else but we can be smart, and funny, and good at sports. We can like sports that are not mainstream and it is acceptable and should be encouraged.”

I broke the rules for a reason.

Photography, computer programming, and many other actions have rules. One rule across all actions, “Sometimes it is good to break the rules.” I don’t believe in a lawless society. I believe rules are good. There are times when breaking rules is good. It is good when there is a reason, the output is good, and others are not harmed. When I learn something new, I start by learning the rules and the impact if the rules are broken so I can decide which rules I want to break.