Different People, Different Ways

The other night I was having a conversation with one of my neighbors, and during that talk, I got to find out that I had unintentionally offended someone months ago but never realized it fully until now.

There's this guy that I met in camp, and after spending about two weeks with him, I came to the conclusion that he was a weird dude, a conclusion I had not kept to myself but also told him about. And as expected, he got upset and ended up not talking to me for a couple of days before we eventually squashed the issue.

This guy happened to be the kind of guy who would randomly begin a brand new, unrelated conversation right in the middle of an old conversation.

So let's say we were talking about football and what our favorite football team is, right as someone is about to talk about why they love and support Manchester United, he would just open his mouth and start talking about a pastor who they said recently cured a person of madness.

It was always something random and unrelated, and I found it extremely odd.

_{photo by Randy Fath}

But then the other night, this neighbor of mine pointed out how I would often post certain pictures or videos on my status with the laugh emoji attached to them, but to him and everyone he shows the video, they weren't funny. He didn't call it weird, but from his explanation, he definitely thought it was weird.

And that immediately made me remember the guy back at camp, because to me, nothing about those videos is odd, just that sometimes, I do find myself relating to or perfectly understanding certain humors that I do know for a fact that not everyone would understand.

And sadly, I happen to be the kind of guy who hates to explain a good joke because I believe that the moment you do that, you kill the fun. So I just go ahead and post it, hoping that everyone else gets to understand it like I did, only for some of them not to.

And now in their eyes, I'm just an odd dude laughing at something that isn't funny, just the same way the camp at camp is an odd dude who randomly starts conversations.

What that made me understand is that people see things differently, and just because they don't do things the way you're used to doesn't necessarily mean they're weird. Different people, different ways, I guess.