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Being The Odd One

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Hmm, I actually felt slightly odd-one-outish until I was about 14, basically because I'm male and I don't like football. And to boys under 14, everything is apparently about football. Sometimes I had to pretend to like it, because I thought there must be something wrong with me to not like it when everyone else did. Luckily, in the mid-teens the male-male friendship dynamic changes... the focus shifting from football to... ALCOHOL! Joy! And I'm very, very good at alcohol.

Mmm anyway, what I learned was that you find ways to work around it. In the end, things like that don't really matter... if you like someone then be friends with them and find common ground (and keep differences in the background). Otherwise... why bother being friends with them at all?

Reply 21

platinumki

I used to be very, very much the odd one out. Odd clothes, odd tastes, odd accent (from same area but 'posh'), odd attitudes, odd... everything. I was 5ft 9 at the age of 8 ( have only grown three more inches though, thank god), I was leagues smarter than everyone else, I used words they didn't understand, didn't watch the television, never went out to play, couldn't go a bike......

And, for many years, nothing much changed, I was always on the outside, ecept for a few chums. But, then, about two years ago, I thought, this is stupid, I can fit in. I didn't really alter myself, I just made more of an effort. I still can't go a bike, or enjoy shopping and I INSIST on having mad, curly hair but I stopped thinking of myself as different. OK, they aren;t exactly bossom buddies, but I like them, they like me and I have more fun. If I need to do work, I do work and no one minds, but sometimes it's nice to be silly, for a spell. If you don't want to be different, stop thinking about everyone else as a different species - you'll have something in common with each of them if you try.

Reply 22

Toy Soldier

platinumki

I was 5ft 9 at the age of 8 ( have only grown three more inches though, thank god)

Ahh, yes. I was 5'8 when I was 8, and 6ft by the time I was 10. Stopped at 6'2, when I was about 13, and haven't grown a bit since. But I quite enjoyed being hugely (a good foot at one point) taller than everyone else... I found it quite unsettling when everyone started catching up. And REALLY weird when a few overtook me (one guy in my year is 6'5). I was always the tallest, then one day it's like "hey... I'm only 7th tallest now :eek: