Awkward is the New Awesome

When I came to Whitworth, it was like entering a new culture.  The other freshmanlings who moved into BJ were probably just as un-graceful as I was, but to me, everyone was speaking a different language and wearing Toms shoes and longboarding around with their messenger bags and back-sagging hats.  Worst of all was the humor.

I can distinctly remember trying to walk through a doorway that was blocked by the presence of a tall, looming boy from the Village who blinked at me blankly as I tried to figure out the most polite way to get around him.  We stood there staring at one another for a few moments.  He blinked.

"Geez, you're forward."  He finally said.
"What?  Uh... No!" I flushed and tried to explain that I just wanted to get through the door.
"I was kidding.  I just wanted to make you feel awkward."  He laughed as I ran past him, covering my burning cheeks with my hands.

From that point, I slowly, clumsily tried to figure out the rules that would help me obtain some social prowess until one day I finally reached an epiphany:

Everyone is awkward!

Perhaps the main reason why many of us are so awkward is that there are very few actual rules to interacting with people, and the rest is just being confidant in your weirdness.  What I then discovered is that people's weirdness is exactly what others enjoy.  For example, wolf shirts?

I have come to a new appreciation for awkwardness in American Immigrant Literature with Dr. Fred Johnson.  Fred is by far the most awkward individual over the age of 25 that I have ever come across.  And he rocks it!  He will say something like "Oooh a red marker!  I've never had a red marker in this class before! How exciting!" and then he will look at us with this 'Did you get it?' face.  My favorite part is where he stops the class to wake somebody up.

Fred has the sort of humor where he draws an illustration from an eclectic or out-of-place source in a way that worries us for a moment with its randomness, but ultimately makes his point creatively in the end.  So, RoboCop was in one of Fred's earlier slides in his lecture about literature theory.  A few days later when we were on a completely different topic, who should appear on the screen, completely covering all the words?  Why, RoboCop?  Why are you awkwardly interrupting this lecture?  Fred always brings it back around, but for a moment we think he is crazy. I try to have as many awkward conversations with Fred as possible.

People take themselves way to seriously. We worry so much about how we come across and what other people are thinking of us.  Honestly, everyone would much rather be with someone who is comfortable in their own skin and can laugh at their own idiosyncrasies.

Embrace your awkwardness, friends.  I think you're pretty awesome.