Have you been asked who you are? I have. It’s a difficult question to answer. Its not a static answer. It never has been. All my life I’ve been that little sliver of the pie chart, the one that didn’t get absorbed into any of the other sections. (Why is it that piece always seemed to end up grey?) You had your popular kids, your sporty kids, your rich kids, your academics, the drama people, the stoners, the nerds, the aggies, the GLBT’s (though no one really let loose bein a trannie yet), your bullies and then there was the grey slice. As we moved along life’s path into the post college years, your twenties or early thirties, you still have the same groups, its just now they overlap more, go by different names and wear better shoes..
You have your downtown crowd: everyone who networks and meets for drinks to talk about what’s happening and new in business. Those people that swap wives and have affairs with each other and wonder why they are on divorce number three and why their alimony bill is higher than their mortgage.
You have your Athletes: these people either turned pro (quite the rarity) or think they should have because remember that game against that team that one time? When I caught that winning pass?!? Yeah, I kicked ass!! So they make their kids lives hell by making them play sports they don’t want to or over-exert their growing body so they can continue to have their glory years.
You have the successful people, the young entrepreneurs: the ones that seem to make everything work and always seem to be your boss even if you know more. Possibly these are the ones who either had that brilliant idea that they patented just before the napster caught them napping. Or maybe they got lucky by playing all that Atari and Nintendo and wrote a game that sucked in every kid in the country until his folks just had to spend 80 some odd dollars on whatever. Hopefully these were the nerds who didn’t listen to what the bullieshad to say and used all the anger from all the ass kickings to spawn some sort of revenge in a form that would be easy for the bully to see.
There are your academics, the know-it-alls or the nice kids that were just really smart, that are still in school or have two Ph-somethings, teach at a snooty university and are working on a grant funded paper about the significance of wearing uggs with skirts on teenage female body temperature. Ask them about something unrelated to their field and they may stare at you blankly
The drama people have morphed into the “Theatre” people (said with snooty accent) or some kind of musician. By some kind I mean a couple may have some label time, others may have local notoriety but most just look like they’re still in high school and still sound just as shitty. The thespians are either wanna be actors in LA or New York, possibly teachers themselves. But one thing is certain… they may have done good work and maybe not but they have definitely had lots of drama.
The stoners are now the vegan chiropractors, herbologists, reiki practitioners, massage therapists or energy healers that are trying to promote a healthier you through releasing your toxins and getting at one with nature. They promote working for a greener planet by getting pot legalized in whatever state they live in. (that should help, for sure)
The aggies are still just aggies… what are ya gonna do? They still work on dad’s farm or ranch if it hasn’t been bought by some big conglomerate and they do what their family has always done. They get by. Every so often they high tail to the city and hate it. So they run back to what the know.
The bullies were and still are the big pussies. They’re getting passed over for promotions because they can’t figure out how to email their application or are too lazy to actually keep the job they had. They perpetuate the cycle that keeps so many people in business and consequently… they turn into the stoners to deal with the shit hole they created by being assholes.
And the GLBT’s? You gotta love these guys. They’ve always known, only now, if they are strong they get to shout it and the bullies can kiss their successful asses. They are doctors, lawyers, teachers…. And on and on.
I’m sure I could come up with hundreds, but what of the grey slice? Where are they? Who are they? Do they get to identify with any of these? No. The fact is there are a couple of us out there that blend into the background even when we aren’t blending. We fit into every one of these groups including the ones people don’t like. This should be a good thing. This should make life easy, to get along with everyone. Until you have to answer the question “Who am I?”
Where do you begin? How do you start when you can’t remember a time when you did only what you wanted to? How do you teach yourself the rainbow when you are the blending shade of grey?
momma sed
