But some of my best friends are........

"If a black man from Chicago was taught to stand far away from gay people because he didn't want to be accused of being gay. What would happen if he'd run into a gay man? What's the talk? What would he learn, what would I learn? I learned that people in Chicago were wrong and I had been an asshole all along."
--Kanye West on homophobia

***

I have been blessed most of my life with having no outward or apparent prejudices towards any particular person, or group of people. In high school all the "jocks" viewed me as a "freak" that was tolerable, and the "freaks" viewed me as a "jock" that was tolerable. In truth I was neither a "freak" (100% drug free and happy about it, in high school) nor was I a "jock" (One day on the tennis team, one week in track-but I DID finish the mile, lol).

I was lucky, because I was able to "be-friend" or at least interact with people from "both sides". I may not have fit the mold, or even remotely agreed with where they were coming from, but I was still able to see them for what they where, are......people.

I have come across situation similar to high school throughout my life. I remember moving from Carpentersville, to Lake in the Hills, my 2nd week of 7th grade. New school, new people, none of whom I knew. My first class, someone actually said hello to me, not the other way around. A "jock", as it were, but none the less, he saw "just another person" in class to say Hi to. We were never close in school, but it still left an impression (Thank You Todd Thomas, wherever you are).

Don't get me wrong, there were alot of people in high school that saw me as neutral at best, and therefore tolerable as a human being. Not people that I considered friends, per se, but people that had the ability (aware of it or not) to be friendly even though they were not "friends".

In high school there were people like Vince Amandes, Bill Baruth, Andrea Di Pascua (sp.), etc, and I could go on for quite a while here........but you get it. People who saw beyond themselves and the cliques they had been absorbed into, at least even to say "hi" as you passed in the hallway.

People who needed no motive or reason to say hello, it was just a part of who they were as individuals, seperate from the pack.

Often I remind myself, as I walk through a mall, or am in line at the store, to flash back to that time, and turn to the person in line behind me and say Hello.

Amazing what affect that canhave on a person, usually both.

Try it sometime -