You Labeled Me, I'll Label You.

This is an issue I personally feel pretty fairly strong about.  And I'll tell you why; I've always been one who makes friends far more so with people as individuals rather than people in particular groups.  I've never really fit in with anyone's "cliques," "friends groups," or "social labels," or anything else you want to call it.  I just make friends with whoever pretty much, so long as I feel like they're good people.  Even though without a doubt, given my personal interests, the general kind of person that I am, and the majority of my friends, if one had to label me under anything in particular it would definitely be with the geeks, the fact of the matter is that even then there's still a whole lot about me and my personal interests that doesn't quite fit into the typical geek steriotype.  But that's just kind of how I am, I've always been one to avoid limiting myself to what a particular social label or whatever "defines" about me.  I've always been my own person.  Simply put, I've always liked whatever I wanted to like, I've always liked whoever I want to like, and not really cared about what everyone else thought about it, whether I was too geeky for them or too much of an "in" person for them.  Because that sort of thing has never mattered at all to me.

Problem is it hasn't really always been that way.  I've always been the "not fitting into any one particular social label" person that I am, yes.  But way back when I wasn't quite as confident about it as I am today.  Because of me going about things the way I do in that sense I've always been somewhat of a loner, not being able to "fit in" with anyone in particular.  And back then I used to think that there was something seriously wrong with me because of it, and unfortunately it's caused me much more social tragedy and drama than I ever would have liked to have.  But you know something?  Over the years that's become something I've been able to embrace about myself for who I am and have kind of garnered the attitude that if other people can't do the same, then forget them.  And that's really something I feel like more people out there should have the courage to do.  Because even if you may not have really all that many friends, fact of the matter is if you have ones that are the truest and deepest of friends, then that's all you really need.  And those true friends of yours are going to be the people who do indeed have that capacity to accept you for who you are, whether you fit their preferred social label or not.  Same thing applies to finding a significant other as well.

Pretty much the overall point I'm trying to get at here is that sometimes, I really think too many people out there limit themselves far too much to what other people label them as, that in all honesty, they miss out on all sorts of opportunities out there.  Opportunities for the kinds of wonderful people they could become friends/significant others with, for what certain personal interests/hobbies they could end up loving more than anything else in the world, and probably more than anything, their abilities to expand their horizons and become better, more knowledgeable people.  But I suppose there's just something about being able to "fit in" at least somewhere, anywhere, that people feel the obligation to do so.  And the sad thing is that because of that, they don't allow themselves to do all those things I mentioned, because they're afraid they won't "fit in"  with anyone.  Being a self proclaimed geek myself (if you haven't noticed already :P ), one of the things I have the deepest respects and admirations for in the sense of social labels are indeed those self proclaimed geeks who are proud to be so and show it.  It shows a great deal of self confidence and ability to not care what others think, considering how "uncool" or "out of the social norm" it is to be a geek.  But even then, considering that to be a geek is indeed a social label in and of itself, I say why limit yourself to just that?  Why not be proud to not only be a geek, but to be who you are in all other aspects of your persona as well?  I guess with that said one could say that I am proud to be a loner; one who doesn't fit in with the limits of social labels.  One who just goes out and is who he wants to be and doesn't care what everyone else has to say about it.