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Friday, May 6, 2011

Things People Don’t Seem to Get About Me- A Primer

It seems like even the people who’ve known me for years don’t get why I do some things, so here are some of my attempts to explain.

Conflict Avoidance-

I avoid fights, conflict and general disagreement on principle. Simply put, I don’t care about much and if you feel like fighting about something, you go right ahead.

 I’ll be over here. With the camera.


If someone is rude to me, that’s their problem, not mine. Being polite often works far better than being angry back at someone, and as a bonus, sometimes it makes them even more pissed at you.


 Sometimes even saying nothing at all works.


How I Dress-

I dress like either like a hobo, or a guy, depending on who you ask. This occurs for several reasons.

1) I have no sense of fashion

 I don’t get it. 


 2)  I am permanently stuck in the grunge era, for whatever reason. 


3) I think outfits like this look freakin’ sweet: 


Why I’m So Damn Calm:

Mostly, it’s because of my dad.
See, most of my family is the calm, quiet type. We don’t talk about our feelings or problems unless it’s something really big that we think others can help with. My dad’s different. He’ll rant and rave about how the world is ending, how he’ll lose his job, how something terrible is going to happen.


 Like this, but in the living room.

Now that I’m older, I realize this was his way of dealing with stress. He vocalized the worst that could happen, got out his fear and anger, and moved on. When you’re a kid, however, you don’t know about those ‘coping mechanism’ things and instead think: “Oh god, what do we do? What if he’s right and we can’t pay the power bill? What if he loses his job and we have to move?’


 I’m going to be in here for a while.


Eventually I learned all the horrible things he worried about never happened. We got through any problems just fine, the world didn’t end, and eventually I just learned to tune his loud freak-outs out. I had basically become immune to both yelling and any problems that weren’t right in front of me.


 “When the explosion is a half-foot from me, then I’ll start caring.”

Another thing that helped is growing up around animals, and riding horses. One of the first things that you learn about horses is that it’s a bad idea to get scared, nervous, or generally panicky around them. Staying calm and rational is the best way to go.


 JUST STAY COOL MAN.

This basically reinforced the idea that staying calm and looking for a practical solution is the smart thing to do. Trail riding also exposed me to a whole bunch of random dangers that made other things look, well, unimportant. While other people were worried about that thing someone else said about them in gym class, I dealt with what to do if someone’s horse runs into a cactus patch on a midnight trail ride.


Sure it looks awesome, but what if your horse spooks?

So, basically, I have learned to just straight-up not give a fuck unless bears are literally attacking and forcing their way through the door.

And even then I’ll ask if someone has a shotgun handy. 


 Not like it’s a Kodiak or something.


Why I like Dogs so damn much-

Because dogs are awesome.