I have been classed weird, or strange over the years. These times are rare when they happen and when they do, it’s usually by people who don’t know me at all.
Regardless that this can still hurt when I hear this. I don’t care what they think, when they don’t know me.
I don’t automatically let anyone in. I have to know you first, then slowly the walls will go down. Depending on how much I trust you, or how much you are involved in my life will depend on whether I partly let you in, or fully let you in.
But if you do something that knocks that trust away, then the walls quickly go up and are not likely to come down for you.
When you see someone who you think is weird, or strange, rather than think that say hello and see what happens. Chances are you will get an hello back, with a smile. You don’t know their background that makes them like that. For me, I had fear of dad growing up. I was bullied at school from late junior school age and all through comprehensive. So I don’t give trust easily. I stand back and observe you, seeing what you are like. You are either going to be a person who I think may be ok. Or you may be some I don’t want to know, or don’t feel comfortable around, because how you come across. I am more cautious of men, then women, because I have been in an abusive relationship and then another relationship who years later after splitting up with him, found out what a person he was like that he was hiding and so I will never go out with a man. But if I have a man just as a friend, then it means I have trusted you as a friend. But regardless of trust, I would still never go out with a man. Being single is the way I will go. I would never be intimate again. The idea makes me sick. I have done more as a single person, than in a relationship.
So next time you are thinking someone is strange, or weird. Rather than call them up front, or behind their backs, ask yourself why that might be? Say hello because you want to be a friend, otherwise walk away and leave that person alone. They have enough to possibly contend with.
© Elizabeth Fisher and My Wellbeing and Learning Journey.
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