EPTThis weekend I went with my girlfriend, who absolutely adores the outdoors, to a hummingbird festival. While there we had an absolute blast, it turned into one of the most fun dates she has ever been on (more on that later). There were lots of talks and animal presentations there, very few about hummingbirds ironically. While there, while she was having a blast, I had an interesting experience.
Most of the people there were not necessarily nature lovers, but people who wanted to seem informed about nature. It seemed like most of the people there were not there because they enjoyed being there, but rather, because they had children who wanted to go. Along with that, it seemed like most of the people there (please remember this is in a relatively close to Tennessee part of Mississippi) weren’t really educated in general. I had a lady sneeze on my back, she didn’t cover her mouth with her arm or even her hand. I don’t want to make it sound like I am some kind of god on my high horse, rather, I was a bit shocked that the people there were not people like: biology professors, anatomy lovers, professional animal workers, etc. In general it was a pretty down-home southern fair, and there is nothing wrong with that
. This kind of took me by surprise though. People seem to enjoy things that make them feel awe. That’s not something I just figured out today, but I never truly appreciated the happiness that people can have by just learning something new. I have been in highschool for 4 years now, and some of my courses are the same (some harder, but very few) than the college courses I see from our public college. I had stopped enjoying learning new things, and being in awe of new ideas, I had thought that I had a schema of everything. In general, as psychology teaches, people have a schema of most things so that we don’t have to experience things for the first time; I, in my overwhelming pretenti-osity, thought that the world had started to slow down for me. I learned on this singular date that:
- My girlfriend can make even a different situation, one that I don’t know if I will enjoy, very enjoyable. This goes for friends in general. I enjoy stepping out of my zone of comfort, but I haven’t done it in so long since I’ve been bogged down with school work;
- People who love to see new things aren’t always the incredibly educated, people who are just down-home, conservative people also really love the same things I do;
- Love of learning is something that permeates life, not just highschool.
Along with this sudden enlightenment, I have also learned that I’m not a bad guy, I’m just that guy.
Being that guy can be really fun, I have a ton of friends who are the coolest people I know. They are so good that I introduce them to my other friends and they just keep talking, in short I know some great people. However, getting to know such great people, and being that guy usually means you have to go through some
I asked about how they (there were 2 people, one middle aged lady and an old man) were using uncertainties, since I saw them using Calipers, and the old man then got defensive when the lady didn’t understand what an uncertainty was. He told me that it goes to x10^-4 cm, which is complete bullshit since that’s to the x10^-6m, which that caliper CANNOT physically be that certain for. So basically he told me that it wasn’t physics class and that I was not in a position to ask such a question.
Live life to have fun guys, I’m starting to realize that life isn’t for the stoic, life is for the loving.
Today I was given a free hamburger from 5 guys on a tab because the manager saw I had no money for one. Life's about the little things, I'm starting to see that more than ever now.
