I'll never know how or why acceptable behaviours can differ from place to place. I'd like to think people would be simular everywhere. I've always hoped that people are generally good in nature.
But it seems that people liking you or not may have nothing to do with you at all.
When I was a kid, I changed high schools.
They were 30 miles apart. I was instantly like at one, and instantly hated at the other. I thought there was something wrong with me.
The high school that I was hated at was Heath High School. Thats the one where a fourteen year old shot several people in class, killing three. The popular kids there were the bullies.
The other one was Livingston High School and it's never made national news. The popular kids there were the atheletes and cheerleaders.
They were about the same size, race distribution, and had simular facilities.
I attended Heath High school in the 8, 9th and 11th grade and was hated. I attended Livingston in the 10th grade and was popular. I had no time to change my behaviour, so it wasn't me.
Today's attitude is, if your kids are having trouble at school, get them on Prozac,
It's the kids problem. I started stuttering at Heath High School, I know it wasn't me with a problem, it was my reaction to one. It was everyone elses problem.
I think that only an open minded psycologist would be able to analyse the real problem. It seems insanity can exist in groups of people.
Now as an adult, my general rules of thumb are:
- If a traffic light turns green and people honk like its a Jeopardy Game, get out of there as fast as you can. That is just the tip of the ice burg.
- If people look at you like they hate you, they probably do. Nothing good can come out of talking to them.
- When moving from one place to another, trust your instincts. There's a lot of difference between mob and parade mentalities.