Some People Just Don't Get It

When I was in France, I discovered the burden and the gift of a language barrier. Well, that's not entirely true. I first discovered it in high school. See, I attended a good and competitive middle school (well, comparatively). When I got to high school, I discovered that not everyone had that same benefit. For instance, since I had been taking typing and computer courses all through middle school, I was already proficient by the time I entered typing my Freshman year (it was required) and I was shocked to find that most of my classmates seemed to have barely even seen a computer before (keep in mind this was way back in 1995). Within a month, I completed every assignment the teacher had planned for the semester, plus a few she made up. After that, I spent the rest of the time goofing off and helping my friends cheat on their assignments. So, to get back to my point, I also found that I had a better vocabulary than most of these kids, so I had to dumb myself down to be understood most of the time. It was frustrating.

Anyway...France. With my limited knowledge of French, plus my insecurities about sounding like an idiot, it was burdensome to try and communicate for fear of not being understood (without resorting to English, which most of them spoke anyway). On the plus side, I found how great it is to be able to walk around and not have to listen to people's inane chatter all of the time because I couldn't understand them anyway. It was quite a shock when I came home and could no longer block out the ramblings of random people as they perused the aisles of Barnes and Noble.

Unfortunately, living in a heavily populated city, it is completely inescapable, especially when your iPod freezes up on you and you've finished the only book you were carrying (always bring a back-up). It's hard to say which is worse, the people who feel the need to express every thought they have as loudly as possible no matter how mundane ("This subway is so cold" "I had chicken for lunch, I like chicken.") or the people who try to hold lofty conversations about subjects they know nothing about.
The thing that really bugs me is that people just don't understand the world around them. Either they are not paying attention, ignoring the news, and stopping in the middle of the sidewalk, or they are willfully ignoring the world around them, choosing not to think about why it is that things are the way they are. I don't just mean on a global scale, I mean on a personal one. Do you know how much of the day I spend analyzing my own actions and the actions of others? Its a lot, and yet they can just stumble through life without a care, knocking into you and getting in your way, ruining your new suit and making a mess. Ignorance is bliss, but the greater bliss is in being completely self-centered but thinking otherwise. But anyway, let's talk about me.