Take a stand.

Hmm, I relearned that lesson this weekend. (Disclaimer: I feel sorry for whoever has to rate this. )

I went to the Nashua mall with Chevis and mooched enough off him to get an awesome shirt that says "Free the Elves" on it. Before I saw it, I wasn't even aware that the elves were imprisoned, much less in need of a good rescue. I'm thinking of writing "SECRETSANTA" on the back of it with a Sharpie, but I'm not sure. Then we watched Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, which happens to be a "most triumphant" film, if I do say so myself. Yeah, so then I went to Fairwood (my church that some random people think is a cult, don't know why) for a youth (for lack of a more descriptive word ) thingy and we went bowling.

Things began to get interesting in the van on the way back. This one kid, Justin (not Maguire), was sitting in the back with his friend Jon, and another kid they didn't really know named Andrew. I was sitting in the row ahead of them with this awesome girl named Zarah, and ahead of us were these two brothers, Cody and Josh. First, Justin and Josh, for some unbeknownst-to-me reason, decide they want to know what grade I'm in. I'm just like "freshman" in a pretty neutral tone and their like "ooh, freshman" in their little sarcastic tones, so I replyed with my classic "I am in junior math though." So they did the classic "I'm going to make fun of someone else's intelligence" thing and were throwing random math stuff at me like "ooh, what's the square root of 3000?" They were really starting to annoy me so I'm just like "Is this really relevant at the moment?" and Justin, in his infinite wisdom, says "Ooh, big words, you didn't say you were good at English too" in that wonderfully annoying sarcastic tone of his. I had a myriad (I hate to insult the intelligence of Americans , but that means big number) of replies to that statement, but none of them were good, so I just didn't say anything. (And I mean like Biblical good; believe me, they were quite witty ). I suppose they forgot about me roundabouts of then, because the rest of the way back, Justin and Jon were, let us say, "word-fighting" with Josh and Cody. All of them were just calling each other names like "meathead(?)," "wangsta(supposedly the 'lowest gangster,' ooh, that's insulting )," and "gay(what seems to be a favorite for some )." So Andrew interrupts, and he's like "You guys, we're at Fairwood to grow in the Lord," and they just continued with their little "name-game." I suppose they respected him, because when I piped up and said, "Is there really any point to this?" they all were like, "shut up, meathead." So for a bit, I was just quiet. I turned around to Jon, who was currently arguing with Josh over his sexual preferences (aka, Josh was calling him gay, so he was fighting back). Can't really blame him. I was just like "Dude, don't join them in their little 'name-calling' match," and he's like, "But they keep saying I'm gay!" So I'm like "Dude, you're not gay; you know you're not gay, so why do you care what they think?" So he was like, "Yeah, you're right, I don't care, I'm not listening." And one less person on the planet was joining in a worthless show of verbal aggression. Now, I'm going to bet this sounds pretty cheesy, but it was one of the first times I've ever had to stand up for what I believe in when it really mattered, and I did. Well, it mattered more than the fact that I hate country music and like to argue about it with people that like it, persay.

I thought about it for a while, and what I figured out is this: the guys that look the most "manly" from the world's point of view are the "I'm so aggressive" and "gangsta" and "ooh, I've won more fights than you" types. The people that are like that, in contrast, are the one's that are insecure in their masculinity. Somewhere, subconsciously, possibly due to a worldly background, these guys think that they need to be aggressive and fight and such to show that they're a "real man." I find myself on the opposite end of the spectrum, where I have Laura and Nikki making fun of my scarf for it looking "feminine" or something, and I don't need to go beat someone up to show them I'm not gay, because I know I'm not, so do they, so it doesn't matter. The guys that are what the world describes aren't real men. They're just insecure and feel like that's what they need to do to be a man. Real men are men of God that know how to be an nice guy to guys, a gentleman, but still be able to stick up for what they believe in. That's what I strive to be (although I don't always do a terribly good job ).

Oh, and another thing: when you find people like that, and they try to make you mad, be a nice guy (or girl ) to them. They hate that. It's not the best reason to be nice to somebody, but as long as you're being nice, I don't see why your intentions have to be squeaky clean.


Haha, a quick hilarity: Chevis's little sister calls him "Favitz"