|
|
(I like their default backdrop too much to change it, actually...)
Nerds (a short story- it's also true):
When I was young, I was made fun of in school a lot. I did and said things differently than others. Despite usually good (though perhaps sometimes badly expressed) intentions, people weren't very nice to me... When the teasing stopped, the loneliness began.
When I became an adult, I thought things would get better, but still I was no-one's real choice for a friend. This made me bitter, which was a mistake on my part.
I absolutely recognize the fact that a decision "to not have been bitter" would have only made "a small and finite improvement" in a basically already bad situation. Still, I encourage those who are like me to be the least bitter they can be.
Also, I'd like to apologize to those I've annoyed during that time, especially if you didn't deserve it.
Though born in Washington, DC, I graduated from high school and started programming in West Virginia (not a bad place, but low population density and minimal diversity must have really changed what my options were).
Then a friend took me to Philadelphia... four people in the same night treated me like a real person.. I tried my "something or other"-off to get back there, but instead ended up in Arlington, VA (near Washington, DC)...
Here's what I found out in my new home (this is important): Yes! I *do* get treated "as well as anyone else" far more often than I used to... But there's more to it than that. It's not a "quick fix"... There's a lot I never got to learn about human interaction because of the few times I got to practice it.
The moral: Care about your world... Don't just be happy where you are, or be content to not know anything about the places you hear mentioned. Travel, and experience before your life isn't what it could have been...
And also know that, though there are "jerks" in any town, there definitely seem to be circumstances where those of us who have never gotten much of a chance seem to get one...
Isn't that all you've been asking for throughout your own struggle?
Why did I post this? There's someone just like me somewhere, and I want him to have more information "to go on" than I did.
In 1999, while living in Arlington, VA, I met approximately 30 or more strangers who had conversations with me of significant length (as in I learned "personal details" about the person)... In Martinsburg, WV, I would have had to count back atleast several years to get this count... Is it population density? I don't know, but something very interesting occurs with this, and some aspects of it even appear to indicate that it may even be "seasonal"!
Also, incase you also find this interesting, strangers who don't like you in cities appear to be slightly more obnoxious about it.. Could this also be population related perhaps?... It is my belief that during times I have encountered more friendly people, I seem to also have encounter more "bird-brains" as well... I am wondering if something that causes one is causing the other... Kinda makes you wonder doesn't it? (Trust me though, don't let this worry you... it's very much worth it for what you get back... You forget the "doh-doh" real quick... the nice guy you remember a long time!)
(For "Enhanced Symbol Set", an atomic representation of the social misfit acceptance problem in America, click here. It was written under my pseudonym "Ientity Andreas En Lafira Dallelle.) Also available is my latest opinion about this writing after creating it (This has what I would change about it.).
"I genuinely want to be friends with well over 90% of the people that I encounter. But, if I am true and just to myself, and they choose to dislike or hate me, without first getting to know who I -really- am, then
what choices are they really leaving me with for how to view them?"
|
|
|
|
