Embracing My Innate Hipsterism.

From early childhood I have always had the desire to be different. I can't remember anyone ever telling me it was vital to be unique, but I always felt it very strongly even when I deeply desired to fit in and have friends.

In seventh grade, when teasing was horrific and most kids were desperate to avoid being singled out as different, I was shopping in thrift store for vintage clothes. That was when Pirate? and I met, and while she was largely oblivious to her weirdness, I reveled in mine.

We got teased and bullied more than any other kids at the school, but I never even considered trying to fit in and not be weird. I liked who I was, and being different was more important than not having rocks thrown at me during lunch. Being an individual was so important that I stopped enjoying things like Anime and skull t-shirts nearly as much when they became popular and mainstream. It never really occurred to me that this had a name until Pirate? was surfing the internet and looked up the definition of "hipster".

Though hipsterism is difficult to define, it comes close to describing my relentless desire to be unlike everyone else. "Hipster" essentially describes a counter-culture of people who deliberately shun mainstream culture and revel in their nerdy, uncool, handmade, apatheist, thrift store lifestyles.

http://wondermark.com/262/

Not that I have any hipster friends though, because that would make me like all the other hipsters.

Some People are Afraid of Dogs.

It's true, and there are a lot of different reasons for it. Some people have an irrational phobia, they're afraid of dogs like tons of people are afraid of spiders. You know, you're way bigger than it, you're a safe distance from it, but it still gives you the creeps or maybe makes you want to flee screaming. Dogs make some people feel that way, and there's no good reason for it, but they don't want dogs touching them the same way you don't want a tarantula or an orb weaver touching you.

You can understand how this person feels by picturing the dog as a giant spider. This is one reason why it is polite to not let your dog approach strangers uninvited.

Some people have movement disorders like cerebral palsy and Huntington's disease. The way these people move often creeps dogs out, even really friendly dogs that never act aggressive. Many people with movement disorders are afraid of dogs because they have been by normally nice dogs.

Some dogs are fine with everybody, and some have been specifically and deliberately trained that people that move in unusual ways aren't scary, but most dogs don't have a whole lot of experience in this area and find it kind of horrifying. The problem is that scared dogs do scary things like bite, lunge, and bark. Sometimes you can tell that someone has a movement disorder because they are equipped with a cane, crutches, a walker, or a wheelchair. Sometimes you can't tell until they take a step and your dog suddenly freaks out because it's seeing this:

It's polite to keep your dog on a leash because just seeing an unleashed dog can ruin this person's whole day without you ever knowing it.

For someone with a movement disorder, a leash means the difference between a safe dog and a dangerous dog.

Likewise, plenty of people are afraid of dogs simply because they've been attacked before.

There's a good chance the dog that bit them was supposedly friendly, and that dog's owner probably said it had never done anything like that before.

People who are afraid of dogs are everywhere. We dog owners can avoid scaring them by keeping our dogs on leashes and not letting them get into anyone's personal space in public. It's a good idea, because people who are afraid of dogs might be landlords, politicians, city council members, and other people who can actively make life easier or more difficult for dog owners. Think of it like scooping poop: when a few people don't do it, it makes all of us look bad and it makes non-dog owners want to make rules and ordinances banning dogs from places. Likewise, seeing a dog owner break a leash law can make a person who is afraid of dogs feel that way. Let's stick together and make dog owners as a group look good by keeping all of them on leashes, even small, friendly, harmless, elderly, and young ones. I can promise that the people who are afraid of dogs don't visit off-leash areas.

The Buddy System

The more socially ept and extroverted people of the world often fail to realize just how difficult it is for the socially awkward to handle large groups of novel people in a social setting. For me, a large amount of this difficulty stems from figuring out what on earth to do with myself at these gatherings. If everyone is playing a game or eating a meal it can be a little bit easier, but for me the worst case scenario is a party that involves a bunch of people standing around talking, even if I already know many of them.

If I'm lucky I'll be able to find friends or new people to talk to for long periods of time, thus minimizing those 'oh shit!' moments. I almost invariably end up gluing myself to some unsuspecting friend who seems to be able to enjoy those sorts of interactions. Hopefully this person does not notice or mind that I am relentlessly following them around all night.

However, unless that friend is as awkward as I am, it can be difficult to stay stuck. This is why I prefer to have an Awkward Buddy at parties. This is a friend who wishes to stay stuck to me just as much as I wish to stay stuck to them. An Awkward Buddy is a good solution for office parties and other situations where I feel obligated to attend but know I won't be capable of maintaining fluid socialization. Even if the people I was talking to have wandered off, Awkward Buddy will save me from standing there alone while I try to figure out how to start the next social interaction. If we cannot manage to join another conversation, we can still talk to each other and at least maintain a thin veneer of social normalcy. We can also feed off each others' anecdotes and knowledge of different subjects to keep the conversation from petering out for a while.

The Awkward Buddy: Great for weddings, baby showers, office parties, and even just large gatherings thrown by friends.