Vijeo Gamez

While researching for a paper I had to write for my Shakespeare class I came upon a realization: nearly every single person on the planet who has gone through high school has strong feelings about Shakespeare.  Many love him, but most hate him.  Even more interesting is the fact that the great majority of those who hate his works have not read them, but simply SparkNotes'd (yes, I made that a verb.  What now, sucka!?!) their way through an English test.

Why does our generation have such strong feelings about things which we do not know?  And I'm the worst of us all.  For the longest time I refused to participate in activities simply because of what a friend of a friend said about them.  I just recently began playing some tabletop games (yeah, I'm that big of a nerd), and I absolutely love them.  It's nice to sit down with a few friends and play a game during which we have actual, meaningful conversation.  For so long I just played video games with my friends, and the depth of conversation was "Dude, you just got pwned!"

I have been an admitted social troglodyte, happily minding my own business and expecting the same.  I had no idea what I was missing.  I home-schooled for much of my life, and I still feel somewhat socially awkward at times (though I can fake it with the best of them).  However, once I made a conscious decision to step out of my comfort zone and reach out to people around me I find them not to be the strange individuals I had once thought, but kind, caring, enjoyable people.

This may sound Sunday School-ish, but I would encourage anyone who reads this to find someone you know but don't know, some acquaintance yet not-friend and be a friend to them.  You may hit a wall (like those who reached out to me for so long), but you may make a great new friend, with wonderful new opportunities.

Ok, I've waxed optimistic for long enough.

Latah.

Y