how do you reconcile with being the black sheep in your family?

Oh you are speaking my language! I am the black sheep of my family tree and my husband is the black sheep of his family tree. You find yourself other black sheep and have a "baaaahhh" of a good time! 🙂

Are you happy with who you are as a person? Are you hurting yourself or others? If yes to the first question and no to the second one, don't let what others think of you matter. I do understand how hard that can be, but you have to realize as long as you are happy with the person you are, your life will be good. And honestly those in your family who have a problem with you being a black sheep are usually jealous, because they didn't have the guts to follow their own dreams.

I don't.

Well, I remember to give a bag of wool to the Master, one to the Dame, and one to the little boy who lives down the lane.

I am less of a black sheep and more of a.....

I avoid certain people that refuse to take responsibility for their mistakes, as a result I don't see much of my immediate family. The good thing in once I am not there to blame anymore things actually get worse for them and they can no longer blame me.

I don't think it was that big a deal in my family .... We were all pretty flawed, but a forgiving bunch of souls. :)

Personally, I'm probably not. I lack the imagination to be a black sheep.

In general terms, how does anybody cope with being black sheeped? (My spell checker hates that.)  You just shrug it off and do your own thing. No matter what you do in life there's always somebody who can tell you how to do it better. You may as well live your life by your own standards, not theirs. They won't approve if you change.