Defining myself
May 20, 2010 at 12:00 pm 2 comments
ghostlightning is a bro. A real bro among bros. (Nevermind he’s almost 10 years older than me)
He’s the cool older uncle every guy would love to have, and it’s been a blast knowing him. Seriously.
And well, he did post about hiding your love for your hobbies in plain sight, which is a pretty cool article.
Personally, while I do get the deal with self-expression, it had never occurred to me that identifying yourself as a geek was necessary. I’m aware that there are people out there who share the same interests, but even then, I’ve never felt the urge to identify myself a geek.
I’ve never believed in identifying myself via hobbies, religion, or even ideals. I was never interested in putting labels onto myself or calling myself something else. I may be intensely passionate about a lot of things, but my BURNING MANY SPIRIT isn’t expressed with things like anime T-shirts or even oddly-colored flipflops.
I do not subscribe in the notion that you have to latch yourself to a group to feel significant or wanted. And while I do have a bunch of friends who I’d love to meet up, I do not feel the crushing urge to do so. And I’ve been through a ton of shit that made me keenly aware the need for companionship.
Identification tags and markers are dangerous and force people into narrow-minded thinking. There are people out there who call themselves Christians, Muslims, Atheists, Environmentalists and Defenders of Ideals, but instead of giving whatever they affiliate themselves with a good rep, they give it bad names with their militant actions, bad attitudes to life and rampant rabble-rousing that makes it extremely unpleasant to use said markers.
At the end of the day, I have no desire to let people know certain sides of me simply because there’s no need for them to learn about it. The real me isn’t defined by my hobbies or my political leaning or my opinion on issues; it’s defined by my attitude towards life, and how I act due to said attitudes. There’s very little need for me to reveal my geek side as it’s intensely personal and it probably creates a caricature of the real me.
My hobbies do not define me. It is my attitude towards life and my actions that reflect said attitude that defines me. This is something I sincerely believe in and it will never change how I feel about the issue.
1.
ghostlightning | May 21, 2010 at 3:25 am
None of my hobbies define me, but the point is not denying any part of me to be expressed to become part of what defines me.
I’m a geek, why deny it? It’s not everything that I’m about and it’s all good. Anyone who gets to know me well enough will find out eventually.
Living in fear of narrow-minded people is the suck.
Showing your colors is part of the hobby. Creatively doing so is doing it at a sophisticated level.
2.
Tyrenol | May 22, 2010 at 5:31 am
You’re the REAL BRO here, Derm.
As with being called a “geek,” I HATED it. So what if I don’t like unnecessary, unjustified violence? My glasses are prescription. I’m skinny because I walk all the time. And I’d get called an N-word by some racist no matter what I am or what I do.
Besides; I make my own labels. The world would SUCK if everyone and their pet dog is closed-minded. -_-;