it's relatively easy for me to meet people online, but there's only so much i can get out of virtual friendships anymore.

  • HiImThomasPynchon [des/pair, it/its]
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    edit-2
    2 years ago

    “Admit it. You aren’t like them. You’re not even close. You may occasionally dress yourself up as one of them, watch the same mindless television shows as they do, maybe even eat the same fast food sometimes. But it seems that the more you try to fit in, the more you feel like an outsider, watching the “normal people” as they go about their automatic existences. For every time you say club passwords like “Have a nice day” and “Weather’s awful today, eh?”, you yearn inside to say forbidden things like “Tell me something that makes you cry” or “What do you think deja vu is for?”. Face it, you even want to talk to that girl in the elevator. But what if that girl in the elevator (and the balding man who walks past your cubicle at work) are thinking the same thing? Who knows what you might learn from taking a chance on conversation with a stranger? Everyone carries a piece of the puzzle. Nobody comes into your life by mere coincidence. Trust your instincts. Do the unexpected. Find the others…”

    It's a Timothy Leary quote, so the emotions are dialed up to 11, but the central idea is solid. If you're willing to say and do some of the 'weirder' things you think and feel, eventually you'll meet someone on the same wavelength. Some examples from my personal life:

    • Shouted "Play Freebird!" at a bad musician during a street festival. A stranger approached me to ask what's the deal with people shouting "Play Freebird." Continued talking after that, found out we share common leftist ideas, and we've been friends for almost a decade.
    • Started dropping little bits of leftist ideas while I was working the carnival and made friends with the only other leftist out on the road.
    • Overheard a lady make a Donna Haraway joke when I was at a friend's art exhibition. I knew immediately that I had to talk to this person. 2 years later we got engaged. Sure, it didn't work out in the end, but it happened and I'm happy it did.

    Basically: Be a lil bit :lt-dbyf-dubois: and a whole lot :yes-chad: