[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by luxinterior

This is a very common response, but I still am unable to make sense of it. First, there is the assumption that once you're out of high school you'll have more of a chance of meeting people who are similar to you. It's not necessarily true, because it's all based on luck. I mean, the same people who are going to these colleges are the ones who attended the high schools in the surrounding area, usually. College doesn't automatically change people for the better. Also, I can't just expect to soon meet people who are more like me. In college, I can tell that a lot of my interests still put people off in the same way they did in high school. And I don't even make a big deal out of it all--it's something that people just find out eventually, by asking questions and such.

And then you talk about the people who choose to keep living in the same area they grew up in--what of it? It's not hurting you, and it's their own personal choice anyway. Once I moved back to my hometown, after a completely disastrous semester in Chicago, a lot of people I know--including certain friends and family members--began to look down on me for something that I felt wasn't so much of a choice as a necessity. I still have to take crap about it from people who don't even understand the whole ordeal, simply because they want to believe I chickened out in some way. Who would want to live in a place where they don't feel welcome?

wow! sounds like your original "friends" were just a bunch of judgmental cockbags waiting for an opportunity to bring out their inner vulture. if that's the case, then, fuckem.

i think normaj makes a good point, but i'll reinterpret it/translate it in my own way-- i'll appropriate it:

i live in a small town now and i see this: for a lot of "normal" people, highschool is the highlight of their existence, their peak, their greatest achievement, and they remain mentally and emotionally stuck forever in that place. oh i see plenty of those, they are the kind of people who love homecoming parades and shit like that. ha ha ha.

see, it is a good thing i think to get out of your hometown and see the world and learn about it, and when you come back some day you can bring what you've learned to your community, if you want to come back. now... maybe you didn't make the right move on your first try, maybe you went to the wrong place, maybe you just weren't ready for it, but don't pay any mind to the assholes who see this as an opportunity to feel better about themselves by putting you down. they're just assholes who lack any real self-esteem.

ok. go forth & thrash now.