Unwanted attention
Got back a few days ago from my trip to Italia. Had a great time overall and enjoyed the time away. The scenery was stunning! I visited the Alpine region so got lots of photos of snow-capped mountains to take home. I really like Italy. I like the food, I like the language, I like the history, I like the people...mostly. The only think I'm not a huge fan of is how casual the Italians seem to be regarding sexual comments. It could be just British prudishness, but I find it almost offensive sometimes. There were around 20 girls on the trip and almost every single one of them received unwanted attention from Italian men (often men three times their age). I know it's a different culture and different things are acceptable but sometimes it just seemed a bit too much. The guys got attention too but no where near as often or as aggressive as the girls got.
I even "supposedly" got advances from a 30-something Italian guy in the street. He stared directly at me smiling and shouted "hey boys!". I automatically assumed he was insulting the two girls I was sitting with....haha! but was told by one of the girls (who travels a lot) that Italians will often say the plural when they mean the singular. ie. "hey boy!" No more than 30 seconds after this, a 40-something unattractive man cycled past us very very slowly grinning like a mad man and blurted "ciao bella!" like he was about to burst with excitement. I understand foreigners can be exciting and Italians are generally quite forward, but like I said before...it's a bit much.
"Friends"
Another thing that I didn't enjoy had nothing to do with Italy. My "friends". They were driving me insane. There's a lot of drama going on at the moment which I am doing my utmost to avoid. I just act pleasant to them but never engage when they talk about any specific drama because I have come to realise they cause most of the problems in their lives, just so they have something to amuse themselves with! One of the friends there was Jen (see attention seeking) and she had decided she just had to be a bitch to me for the whole week and sweet as can be to everyone else. She was controlling, manipulative, judgemental, etc. It was really getting on my nerves. Everything I did was scrutinised and I would get the silent treatment, eye-rolls and snide comments constantly. During the trip I just pretended not to notice this and was nice to all of them (I had paid for this trip, why should I let them ruin it?!) but once I was home I snapped and came to a conclusion. They aren't my friends. They used to be, but now they treat me like shit but still want me to do what they say. They don't offer advice, they tell me what to do. I'm so sick of it. I cannot even be bothered discussing it with them as it's been going on for too long and I don't want to fix our friendship. They really aren't nice people. A lot of stuff has happened with this group over the past few months, too much to start blogging about. But basically one of them decided they didn't like me so made up stories about me to get others not to like me either. I didn't do anything in response. I didn't tell people, I didn't bitch about this person because I wasn't about to sink to their level. Overall they were successful - my group of close friends for the past couple years have cut me out so to speak. Not entirely, they still concoct stories about me behind my back and a lot of their "drama for amusement" is about me somehow. I don't really talk to any of them anymore. I don't consider any of them friends. Some of them know this, some of them don't but sooner or later they'll realise. The advantage of this widespread vendetta against me, means people who are my true friends have become clear. Many of them have come to me letting me know they're there for me. Some people who dislike my old friends have even let me know too. My friend group have always been very popular in the year and I believed them to be well liked. But now that I'm out of their inner circle, I'm hearing a lot more negative opinions of them. It's somewhat reassuring, if only in a completely childish way.
Coming out
Now that I'm so much more sure of myself and who I am as a person, I'm getting frustrated with being in the closet. I don't want to announce it to the world tomorrow. But I'm starting to wonder if I'll last till September like I originally planned. I want to tell people. I want to get on with my life. I feel like I'm lying and therefore stuck in a rut because I'm not moving forward with all aspects of my life. There's no way I'll fully come out while I'm still in high school, but I am considering telling my family or the few true friends that stuck by me before. If I do decide to though, I don't know which is best to tell first. I think I would feel more uncomfortable with my family knowing. I can't really escape them if they're negative and even if they are positive I don't think I'm ready to be "the gay one". I would feel far too self conscious, and worried our relationships would somehow change. If I tell a friend, I can get away from them if they are negative and I would probably be okay with them knowing, but I would have to explain why I've been "straight" for so long. And what if they decide to tell someone else? My school is VERY gossipy and news travels fast. I'm not ready for that kind of attention. I don't know what to do. Tell my family and risk awkward home-life for 5 months? Tell my friends and risk rejection and widespread gossiping? Or stick to my original plan and wait frustratedly till I go to university?
Help!?
P.S I have no idea why the last bit is huge...I can't get it to go to normal size :/
2 comments:
Although Italians might use the plural sometimes when they mean the singular, in their own language they don't make mistakes, generally, with the genders. Therefore "Ciao Bella" was directed at one of the girls, other wise it he would have said "Ciao Bello".
A mistake than many people make, as I used to do as well, is that they value compliments from attractive people more than compliments from unattractive people. But think about it: the compliment says something about you, not about them. Let's strip the case down to three people in a room: you, an even hotter guy, and an ugly guy. Suppose either of them tells you you look good. Then you'd tend to appreciate the compliment from the hot guy more. But look at the situation from the hot guy's perspective: of course you look good... the only other guy he sees is that ugly one. And now from the ugly one's perspective: he sees the hot guy and you, and he gives YOU a compliment. Means a lot more, doesn't it?
The last part is huge because it IS huge. The gossiping is actually gonna help you. The faster it spreads, the faster the news becomes less interesting. It won't get easier if you wait, and your fears will remain the same... until you've come out and see that it is a big deal, but in a far more positive way than you think. That being said, I would come out in the first week of the summer holiday before university, if I were you, and not before that: schools are not made for homosexuals. From that moment on I would just actively stop actively/passively hiding it when you meet new people. You'd be surprised how few times the subject comes up (almost never), and how normal people respond if you don't make a big deal out of it yourself.
Jack,
Thats a good point about who you should value a compliment from more. But in all honesty I described him as unattractive because he annoyed me. His demeanor, his expression, his attitude were more unattractive than his face. Besides its not really who gave me the compliment I have the problem with. Its the fact I don't find it flattering, it just feels disrespectful. After discussing this with a few friends though I think most of it is just different cultures. Its an aggressive thing to do here, an attempt to show dominance over the other person.
Hmm, I understand the idea behind the gossiping. The thing is though there isn't any news to gossip about... I've heard of discussions people have had about me where the entire conversation was about what I might have thought of someone if they had done something. Which they hadn't... yeah it baffles me too!
Siiigh, I know that's the sensible thing to do...I'm just very frustrated! There's one friend of mine who I think I MAY tell before school ends. But only if the situation falls into my lap, I wont go looking to come out for a few months.
Ethan
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