Socially Awesome

I tend to think that I'm fairly normal...okay, I don't, but that's beside the point. One of the great privileges I encounter fairly regularly in my station (now, I'm just going to point out that this isn't a radio station for all you that may have been thinking that I sideline as a disc jockey. Some of you may be wondering what "sidelining" as a disc jockey means, and to that I say...I haven't yet decided. I just kind of wrote something that sounded like it could mean something. Come up with your own definition, i DARE you.) ANYWAY, in my station (reminder: not a radio station) I encounter a select group of people who tend to be ostracized from the majority of society. It's not because of hygiene issues (although this select group of people do tend to be less....how do you say...groomed...as mainstream society), nor is it because of their involvement in what we would call a different "class" of individuals. In fact, as a general rule, this group of people tends to be fairly well off, although there is a stereotype that they may or may not still live in their mothers' basements at the age of 35. Guess who I'm talking about yet? No? Okay. Well, let me just tell you. The people to which I'm referring can be labeled as nothing other than "socially awkward." What makes them socially awkward? There could be a number of reasons. Maybe they spent too much time in their dad's Wizard store as a youth. Perhaps they had dreams of growing up to be a Pokemon Master...a dream which never died. Maybe they even refused sociality with the other youth of the neighborhood and opted to converse with their custom made Dungeons and Dragons figurines. Whether it's one of those or something else, there's just a switch in their brain that either didn't exist or just never got flipped. It's the switch that most of us know as...no, not puberty...I will call it "Hello, reality. I'm here to meet you."

I understand that liking any of the above listed activities is not inherently bad. There are a lot of fun...activities...that children can engage themselves in. All things in moderation, as they say. I'm talking primarily about the people who became so immersed as to skew reality. I know in a previous post I spent some time talking about video games and Twilight and the like, but that's not what I'm talking about here. I'm talking about the special group of people that sometimes make us laugh just by watching them interact with life. Whether that's good or bad is something that you need to decide.

Let me tell you a couple stories of experiences I have had. I will also pose some conjectures as to why the people behaved in the way they did.

Story #1) Last fall (Fall of 2009) I was looking to fill in some extra credit hours with a class that I might actually enjoy. I went to a class with a couple friends called "the Universe," as I have had a fascination with the stars and theoretical astrophysics. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Now, I didn't actually end up taking the class because I decided that taking a class about stars wasn't worth $400 dollars. Call me cheap if you want. I only attended 3 class periods, and I sat on the back row or second to back row as a general rule. One day the professor posed a question (I don't remember what it was), and a guy behind me raised his hand to answer. Now, I want you all to put yourselves in the place of this young man. You raise your hand in class to answer a question; what do you do afterward? Mind you, this is a large class (probably over 100 people in it), and it's in the physics auditorium. Of course, you'd raise your voice a little and just answer. But no, not this guy. He stood up, put his hands behind his back, stuck out his chest and gave the answer. I'll give him credit; he knew his stuff. However, the manner in which he opted to answer caught me off guard and I couldn't help but look at a friend and chuckle a little.

Analysis of Story #1) This gave me cause to wonder: why did that become the norm for this particular individual? Here are some possibilities of what could have led to this behavior. The first thought I had was that maybe he came from a military family. They tend to be excessively strict and proper at all times...then again, a lot of the time the kids rebel and steal hand grenades and flush them down toilets (Yes, I know a hand grenade is probably to big to be flushed down a toilet, but I like to think that at an army base they have some industrial strength toilet...you know...for emergencies, in which this could be possible.), so that may not be it. My second thought was, maybe he was home schooled. I have nothing against home schooling, and I recognize that it may be the best option in some circumstances, but, at the same time, I think that if not done properly, the kids can turn out a little...off. I knew families on my mission that fit this description (although, now that I think of it, the parents were a little strange too...so maybe the home schooling isn't to blame). I finally settled on this notion, however. I am convinced that he, as a youth, suffered some sort of trauma in which he ruined his back and they had to replace it with a metal representation of his spine. That would account for the superhuman rigidness of his back (now THAT would be a terrible super power. "So, he can shoot lasers, he can fly, what can you do?" "I have a really straight spine..."). As for his weird behavior, maybe he had been hypnotized and he didn't even know he was standing when he answered the question. I think it's plausible.

Story #2) Just the other day, I was preparing to take a test in my Digital Logic class (I know what some of you are thinking. "Digital lawjick...?" Believe it or not, but the name of the class actually fits.), and I heard a guy talking to some other guys in the class about video games. This is not an unfamiliar topic of conversation considering it's an engineering class, but the level to which he conversed is what surprised me. He went on to list all the Zelda games in the order that they came out. I love those games, but I've never taken the time to go through and memorize when they came out. He went on to say some other things about video games and so on. I like video games, but I don't LIKE video games, if you catch my meaning. If my xbox were to be stolen, I'd probably read more. 'Nuff said. It's not something around which my life revolves. Yes, I play them frequently, but it's because it's something to do. I wouldn't dream of walking into a class full of computer engineers, list some facts about video games and scream, "I am your god! Worship me!"  I'm not going to analyze this any further because I want to spend some time on an event which took place almost immediately afterward.

Story #3) Immediately after story #2, I happened to overhear a phrase which...let's be honest...was awesome. A young man said the following: I just wanted to walk up to her, say "you're pretty" and walk off. I'm not what we would call "smooth" with the lady folk, probably because the people who think they're smooth are the ones I make fun of. I embrace the fact that people feel awkward when I'm around, and a lot of the time I use that to my advantage (not in a bad way. I just exploit the awkwardness because I think it's funny). But, walking up to a girl, telling her she's pretty, and walking off...strange much? Now, ladies, would that be creepy if that happened to you? If the answer is yes, maybe I should consider doing it.

Analysis of Story #3) I have to wonder...why? I highly doubt that this guy was depraved of female contact sufficiently to create a desire and longing for any interaction with a woman that simply saying "you're pretty" would fill the void. I'm going to give him the benefit of that doubt (because I'm a good person). Perhaps doing that was grounds for receiving some sort of accolade or recognition of some sort. I don't know that it's not. Here is my guess as to what happened. Engineers tend to have a habit of getting wrapped up in school work. There's more than enough to go around. I know this isn't a problem that is exclusive to engineers, but there is one major difference. There is no gender balance in the engineering world, especially if you're dealing with Electrical and Computer engineers, as well as computer scientists. Fact: there is no more than 1 girl in any of my engineering classes this semester. That being said, hormones tend to flare up a little when a girl is seen, let alone what we perceive as a "pretty" girl. I would compare it to the feeling you get when you get a fairly large tax refund. All this money and no idea how to use it. That's how it is with engineers and girls on our turf (the engineering buildings.) This fellow had become so immersed in his school work, that when he saw a girl, he reverted back to his elementary school self and thought it would be a good idea to call her pretty and run off giggling to brag to his friends about he ACTUALLY spoke to a woman. Nothing against him, but I'm going to rank that tactic JUST above yelling "HEY" at a girl as you drive by in your car.

I'm going to make my intentions clear. I do not write this for some crude source of self-aggrandizement. I'm simply giving you a window into my life. These are the types of situations I encounter regularly. There are certain perks to being an engineer. Finding a wife in the engineering classes, however, is not one of them.

There you have it, folks. My rambliest (that's the state of being the most rambly) post yet. If you made it to the end, you deserve a treat.