695
Nothing to do with Minecraft, everything to do with people... the people who frequent our website and the people they interact with.
We have a young audience here. Not everyone, of course, but a good majority of our members are under the age of 20. I remember that age. It sucked. Oh man, it sucked SO MUCH. Anyone who tells you that your teen years are the best years of your life are LIARS. There's so much lousy crap going on: school (boring as hell), cliques (annoying as hell), people of the opposite sex (impossible to understand), parents (hopeless), bullies (dangerous!), plus our own teenage angst... which we all have/had.
I have a secret. It's not for the weak, or faint of heart. If you spend all your time trying to fit in, this is NOT for you.
.
.
.
.
Still reading? Good, you are a brave one.
First, I will tell you this: you've heard it before. Your parents told you. Your counsellors told you. Your teachers told you. BUT! I am NOT your parent, teacher or counsellor. I'm CreeperCarole and therefore, automatically 20% cooler. You know it. Also, I will add that I only REALLY figured this out after I turned THIRTY. Yeah, I'm a slow learner, sue me. But I will tell you this, and Mama Carole does not lie: it's TRUE and it WORKS.
Ok, enough freakin' preamble. Here's the secret:
Be yourself.
Oh man, how lame. That's what EVERYONE says. (See? I told you.) But let me elaborate, instead of leaving it at that. I'll explain why it works.
We spend/spent 99% of our time as kids/teens trying to get people to like us. We'd pretend to be anyone/anything just to be popular. Then next week, the kid with the new inground pool was the popular one (or the guy with the new car, or the one who made the football team, or whatever) and we were wormfood. Me, I'd help with your homework, I'd help you study, whatever. Just so you'd hang out with me. (Remember? Nerd Girl? Yeah.) These days, it's even worse. We'd cut off our right arm just to be the kid with the most friends on FB. Really? SERIOUSLY?
So here's what I figured out. You want people to like you? You need to be happy. To be happy, you need to feel comfortable in your own skin. If you're living a lie, doing things solely to make yourself fit in, you will not be happy. You KNOW you only joined that team to hang with jocks. Or you only got involved with the cheerleading squad to be little miss popular. (Did I really say that? Heh heh.) You really love computers, AV equipment and DANCING... hell, join the Drama club. At least people who like the stuff YOU like are there...
Maybe you're kinda crazy, and you don't fit in any catagories. You're the kid who would love to go full Goth at school, but you're worried about getting beat up. Heck, if you go Goth enough, you'll scare the hell out of everyone and they'll avoid you (except all the other blood-suckers and demonologists, that is.)
You are what you are. You are NOT what your friends/teachers/parents expect you to be. Celebrate yourself, and people will gravitate towards you. Not only the people that share your interests either. People are naturally drawn to people who are truly comfortable with themselves. I have friends in EVERY walk of life with EVERY sort of interest/hobby imaginable (and these are NOT imaginary friends either. They exist... in REAL LIFE... SERIOUSLY!! Well, ok, a couple of them are imaginary, but that's just my little quirk.) My friends started to gravitate towards me when I stopped trying to fit in and started being me. And I'm nuts. Not just "oh, you know that Carole, she's a little off." Nope, not me, I'm certified 100% pure organic crazy. I do crap that weirds out crazy people. And you know what? I love it... and people love it... I'm not trying to fix myself, because I'm not broken. And neither are you... you're perfect exactly the way you are, cracked, crazy, boring, plain, flamboyant, musical, artistic, logical, beautiful, weird or WHATEVER you are. So stop trying to fit in and become a people magnet instead. It leads to a much, much happier life. I promise.
We have a young audience here. Not everyone, of course, but a good majority of our members are under the age of 20. I remember that age. It sucked. Oh man, it sucked SO MUCH. Anyone who tells you that your teen years are the best years of your life are LIARS. There's so much lousy crap going on: school (boring as hell), cliques (annoying as hell), people of the opposite sex (impossible to understand), parents (hopeless), bullies (dangerous!), plus our own teenage angst... which we all have/had.
I have a secret. It's not for the weak, or faint of heart. If you spend all your time trying to fit in, this is NOT for you.
.
.
.
.
Still reading? Good, you are a brave one.
First, I will tell you this: you've heard it before. Your parents told you. Your counsellors told you. Your teachers told you. BUT! I am NOT your parent, teacher or counsellor. I'm CreeperCarole and therefore, automatically 20% cooler. You know it. Also, I will add that I only REALLY figured this out after I turned THIRTY. Yeah, I'm a slow learner, sue me. But I will tell you this, and Mama Carole does not lie: it's TRUE and it WORKS.
Ok, enough freakin' preamble. Here's the secret:
Be yourself.
Oh man, how lame. That's what EVERYONE says. (See? I told you.) But let me elaborate, instead of leaving it at that. I'll explain why it works.
We spend/spent 99% of our time as kids/teens trying to get people to like us. We'd pretend to be anyone/anything just to be popular. Then next week, the kid with the new inground pool was the popular one (or the guy with the new car, or the one who made the football team, or whatever) and we were wormfood. Me, I'd help with your homework, I'd help you study, whatever. Just so you'd hang out with me. (Remember? Nerd Girl? Yeah.) These days, it's even worse. We'd cut off our right arm just to be the kid with the most friends on FB. Really? SERIOUSLY?
So here's what I figured out. You want people to like you? You need to be happy. To be happy, you need to feel comfortable in your own skin. If you're living a lie, doing things solely to make yourself fit in, you will not be happy. You KNOW you only joined that team to hang with jocks. Or you only got involved with the cheerleading squad to be little miss popular. (Did I really say that? Heh heh.) You really love computers, AV equipment and DANCING... hell, join the Drama club. At least people who like the stuff YOU like are there...
Maybe you're kinda crazy, and you don't fit in any catagories. You're the kid who would love to go full Goth at school, but you're worried about getting beat up. Heck, if you go Goth enough, you'll scare the hell out of everyone and they'll avoid you (except all the other blood-suckers and demonologists, that is.)
You are what you are. You are NOT what your friends/teachers/parents expect you to be. Celebrate yourself, and people will gravitate towards you. Not only the people that share your interests either. People are naturally drawn to people who are truly comfortable with themselves. I have friends in EVERY walk of life with EVERY sort of interest/hobby imaginable (and these are NOT imaginary friends either. They exist... in REAL LIFE... SERIOUSLY!! Well, ok, a couple of them are imaginary, but that's just my little quirk.) My friends started to gravitate towards me when I stopped trying to fit in and started being me. And I'm nuts. Not just "oh, you know that Carole, she's a little off." Nope, not me, I'm certified 100% pure organic crazy. I do crap that weirds out crazy people. And you know what? I love it... and people love it... I'm not trying to fix myself, because I'm not broken. And neither are you... you're perfect exactly the way you are, cracked, crazy, boring, plain, flamboyant, musical, artistic, logical, beautiful, weird or WHATEVER you are. So stop trying to fit in and become a people magnet instead. It leads to a much, much happier life. I promise.
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That'd be me in a nutshell. One of my many social immunities happens to be one that affects the most teenagers. Embarrassment. I just can't get embarrassed. Ever since I was really young, I realized something that most people do not figure out until they are in their mid-twenties. I don't give a damn about what other people think of me. I'll do stuff that will flip people out, and if they suddenly decide not to be my friend, whatever. That means that they are not comfortably around ME. And if someone is not comfortable with ME, then why would i want them to be my friend?
Another thing that has always help me was being the leader. If everyone turned left, I would turn right. When I was five, my Kindergarten class went out to a pumpkin patch to pick pumpkins. The teacher lined up all the pretty little pumpkins outside her window. Then about halfway down the line, you saw this twisted, green-yellow, bumpy, gourd. That was mine.
You can and will always find people that will ride with your style. Be yourself and find the people that like you, instead of faking it and finding the people that like generic George, or regular Ronald. Also, if you don't like the people that like you, well, you are probably a jerk that does not deserve friends anyway. Have a nice day.
-TBK