Monday 28 April 2008

Poeple Who Make Me Sad

There are a lot of people in my life who make me happy. I remember a couple of years ago, at the beginning of a new academic year one of these great people mentioned to a new graduate student that the only way to survive grad school is to surround yourself with people who make you happy. I do that. And for the most part, I am happy. I appreciate all these wonderful people in my life. But they are not the topic of this post. I am thinking of the people who make me sad. The people who without trying, intentionally or unintentionally make me sad.

I talked to one such friend a couple of weeks ago. This is a friend from college. I would describe her as a hard working, motivated, ambitious go-getter. She completed college in three years, with high honours and took a great job with one of the biggest financial firms in the country. Within three years she was VP and making close to a quarter of a million dollars. She is someone I greatly respect and admire.

She lives far away from me now and so I never see her any more, I keep in touch by phone. But now every time I talk to her I leave the conversation with a weird feeling. A feeling I can best describe as sadness. There is the fact that I always seem to be the one doing the keeping in touch, she doesn’t always respond to calls or always has to stop talking to do something (more important?). That’s OK really. I understand having a life and being busy. But our conversations always seem to be about why I am still in grad school (yes it has really been five years, and I will probably be here for at least another year), will I ever make enough money (probably never as much as I would if I was doing what she does) and the all important why are you still single/not seeing anyone.

I always leave these conversations feeling really inadequate and insecure. Of course I wish I was done with graduate school. I didn’t plan to spend this long here. You reminding me everyday is not helping me; neither is it going to make me finish any sooner. Do I ever doubt my choice to go into the sciences instead of finance? Sure, I do. At least once a day, and even more on days when stupid reactions are even stupider; even more so knowing that the two of us started out in the same path but went different ways after the first year of college. I will never make as much money but I will probably (I hope) work fewer hours and be happier in a job with less risk. And no, money is not all. As for the relationships, it’s too long a story to talk about right now. Maybe if you were nicer, I would let you read my blog.

I had decided that I am not going to talk to her for a while. It does me no good to. But then she sent me a sweet text message to see how I am doing. And now I am feeling guilty about all my angry thoughts.

Ok, the end.

Saturday 26 April 2008

Public Displays of Affection

I am always weirded (according to MS Word, this is apparently not a word) out by PDA. My friends think I am some kind of prude, because I always roll my eyes or say something when I witness PDA. That’s probably a big chunk of it. But there are a few other legitimate (I believe) reasons.

First of, blame my attitude on the part of the world I come from. The culture/family I grew up in has never been one to show physical affection. Sure, kids hug their parents, and get back rubs and lay in their laps and whatever. But I find that seems to wear off after a few years. Maybe after ten years, or even earlier. Friends, sibling, same sex, opposite sex hold hand in public. It is perfectly accepted. Once it becomes “romantic,” however, then that’s a big No, No. We don’t do that.

I have never seen my parents kiss (thank God for that), or hug, and besides cursory touches, perhaps to guide during a walk or when opening a door, I have never seen any kind of physical affection shown. I always give my parents and siblings hugs when I go home or leave home. I am not sure if it is because that happens when I have been away from a while or will be gone for a while. But that’s about it.

But I have also never been in any doubt of my parents/sibling love and affection for me and for each other. There’s my Dad calling me if I don’t call at the regular time I do ever week or him calling whenever there is any report of any hazard in the US to see if I am OK. There is my Dad staying up to make sure my mum gets home each night before he can go to bed, or my mum calling my dad to make sure he has reached his destination when he is on a trip, or calling to make sure he has eaten when she is away from home. I guess I simply speak a different language. Physical affection is kept in private.

So when it comes to opposite sex couples, this is where my inhibitions come from. On the other hand, for same sex couples, I have different reasons, depending on where we are. On the east coast/north east (i.e. liberal, accepting, tolerant), my attitude is similar to opposite sex couples – Go get a room already! In more conservative regions however, I am usually also worried of what “others” see or would do. As cute as it is (in my head) to see any couple hold hand or kiss (no, I don’t care who you are, full blown make out sessions, should NOT be in public), with same sex couples I always have an added tinge of apprehension. Like, I hope there isn’t a bigot close by. I hope no one will say anything mean to them, I hope some crazy off their meds is not around. Maybe it is my internalized homophobia speaking. I don’t know.

So to all my friends who are couples (which seems to be everyone I know now), when I roll my eyes or make some random comment, it is not really about you. It is indeed about me. And all in my head. Really.

This topic reminds me of my high school’s rule book or whatever you will call. In the list of things you cannot do, students are reminded that “public displays of affection” and “overt displays of intimacy” are frowned upon. I remember as a 15 year old starting high school thinking, “Ewww, and who wants to do that anyway?” Did I mention that I was a late developer? Really late! I never really did get the giggles around boys (or girls either) or figure out why boys are special really. Of course now I can appreciate that concept. But I have no personal experience with the stupid giggly, eye fluttering stuff. I think.

I remember distinctly this friend in high school taking it on them self to teach me to give hugs. Most of the people in my school had either grown up in different cultures (e.g. The Ethiopians were all about kissing every random person on the cheeks to say hello), or had travelled a lot abroad and so were used to hugs and kisses to show affection. “Cousin Selly”, as this friend called me, “we definitely can’t have that,” she said. I do remember how awkward it was for me learning what to do with my arms and such.

The good news is that I turned out to be a really good hugger, if I do say so myself. As it turns out, when it comes to Love Languages, I speak Physical Touch. That is, I tend to show affection to the people I care about by my touch – a hug, a pat on the back, a ruffling of hair, etc. That is what I speak.

On the other hand, that’s not the language I respond to. Random people touching me? Weird! If I know you and I am comfortable with you (and it is really easy to know when I am), go ahead and touch me all you want. Otherwise, stay away. I hear Quality Time. Yes, spending five minutes with me is more important that buying me a diamond ring. Not that anyone is offering to buy me one at the moment. But if they were…


Update/Addendum:

This posting was actually written yesterday afternoon. Later in the evening, I turned on my TV to watch 20-20 on ABC. Coincidentally, they were doing a piece on Gay PDA. A video of the piece can also be seen here. Apparently, it doesn’t matter where you are in the country, most people don’t mind seeing PDA, even the same sex kind. And of course all over the country, from Birmingham AL in the south to Vermont in the north, there are people who are strongly opposed to same sex PDA.

Unfortunately, when some of the people who were strongly opposed to PDA were questioned, it wasn’t very obvious to me whether they were opposed to PDA in general or only to same sex PDA. A few did talk about how “this isn’t what God wants.”

Friday 25 April 2008

Thursday 24 April 2008

Random quote 2

Is caesium poisonous? I think I spilt some in my mouth.

Another frustrated colleague.

How you accidentally spill a chemical in your mouth, I do not know. Good thing it wasn't really ceasium, and he didn't really spill. I love the guys I work with. Most days.

What I want

A blogger I read posted an old email from three years. In this email, he talked about his sexuality and questioned whether being gay or ex-gay is the right choice for him. He is an ex-gay who has recently leaned towards being more ex-ex-gay. He mentioned that he feels differently now. But even though he does, there are some parts of him that remains the same. It would have been interesting to have him mention which parts of that old email still feel the same to him.

But even if he is questioning again, I think it is probably normal, for most people. I will be hard pressed to believe someone who says that they are always certain of the choices they make all the time. I like it when posts are personal. It allows you to get a better feel of who they are and where they stand and how they are doing. I think. But, it is always weird for me when someone's feelings/thoughts mirror my own so much. I was recently talking to a friend about "What I want." Truthfully, I don't know.

Do I want to be with a man, "do I strive for the perfect suburban existence? A gas-guzzling SUV with kids and a mortgage payment I can’t afford. Would I want a husband if I wasn't sexually attracted to him" all the time?

Or do I want to be with a woman, in some city, some place, probably with a gas guzzling truck this time? :-) Would I want a wife if I wasn't attracted to her all the time? And this is certainly not the same as married couples not wanting/needing to have sex all the time.

Lucky me, I do get a choice. I am bisexual after all. I get to "pick" which I want. I am sure I will probably be equally happy. For different reasons. Option one will probably be the easier option. It will be make me happy - and my parents too (and right now, they are pretty much the only people I will give consideration in such an important decision). In an ideal world, this is the option I would want, without even thinking about it.

Option two is probably the more difficult option. It would probably kill my parents (I think, I am pretty certain) and I could probably never go home with her. Plus realistically, it is a harder option in the world we live in. Not that it is impossible. And no, if I got to choose, (without any such hinderances as also being attracted to women) this would NOT be my choice.

The other option I have given considerable thought to is having/adopting a baby by myself with some generous donor (any offers guys?) and living a celibate life. This choice comes with the task of explaining such a choice. Celibacy however has very little appeal for me. It is all fine and dandy in the short term but certainly not in the long term.

For me, there really aren’t any of the God issues here. I am pretty certain that in the grand scheme of things, God does not care as much about whom I share my bed with as people seem to think. And yes, this is a personal revelation/thought. I have often said that neither side of the issue has been able to convince me with anything from the bible. [When put to it, I can argue both sides of the issue equally well.]

The result of all of this confusion is that "I haven’t had “feelings” towards anyone of either sex in a long time. I’m beginning to wonder if I ever will." Everyone around me says I am too picky. That's probably true. But the real issue here is that I am afraid. Afraid of not being true to one part of myself. Afraid that I can't possibly be truly happy, with a man or a woman. That I am going to commit to a man/woman and then want the other after a few weeks, years, whatever.

I will need to get over all of that. All in good time I guess.

As usual, I start out energetically and then suddenly loose my steam. Ask me if you want and I will say some more about my recent thoughts on these issues.