Quite the contrary, beeing labeled is what allows you to go out of the frames and limitations the society tries to fit you in. Label is for people outside. You can simply say: 'I'm different, so I can go and (insert something interesting here' when the society says no.

For me, one of the most important part of becoming a happy person is realizing that you won't live the way people expect from you. That you won't archive what they want.

Overall, I think that we agree, but we verbose our opinions in different ways.

That's why finding a partner who wants what you want out of you is so hard. But life is so much better when you find somebody who really understands this. Some people don't believe it even exists, the lucky ones are the ones who finally realize it does. The worst part is when you realize it does, and then lose the only one who fucking gets it.

If you find a girl/guy that understands this and honestly only wants you to be who you are and loves you for what and who you are and believes in your hopes and dreams, regardless as to weather they have the same believes, run with it, or your screwed.

Theres alot of great things in relationships... sex, posessions, financial security, whatever, but what really makes them last is if your partner wants what you want out of you, and visa versa. This is even more difficult if your socially inept, or just a downright *weird* person, not to say that that is wrong in any way, but the weirder you are, the less likly you are to match with somebody else. Then again, some people like weird people. Thats where I got lucky.

I actually found this thread really interesting. I consider myself quite strong socially, in the sense that I can talk to almost anyone for almost any length of time quite easily. I know the exact type of person that is being discussed here, because I've always found that a great number of my friends would probably describe themselves in the same way. It's definitely not a bad thing, in fact I would say it is the quieter shyer fellow who usually makes a better mate to hang out with.

My social skills rapidly improved when I began working part time in a restaurant, having to cater for many different types of people. After a while it begins to feel very natural, and you can get along with pretty much anyone easily.

A lot of people here spoke about how they may have only had 1 or 2 close friends, but that they were extremely close. I'm more or less the opposite. I've always had a great number of people I've enjoyed spending time with, but not many who I have remained in close contact with. My problem is I don't take the time to keep in touch with old friends, because I know perfectly well I can just make new ones. Next month I'm moving to Japan and leaving many friends and my girlfriend behind, but I don't worry much because I just know I'll replace them (GF is obviously a little different since she means a lot to me)

I'm not sure which is necessarily better. These things are all about effort. The human mind is incredible in what its capable of, but if not exercised correctly it will struggle to do certain things. Get out there and get stuck in, not necessarily drinking heavily or hitting clubs (I don't do that much either), just simply going with a friend somewhere where an opportunity to meet new people lies.

I'm sorry if at any stage of the post I sounded like "I have loads of friends, I'm amazing" because that was certaintly not intended. Just my opinion

Be yourself. Who cares what others think. As long as you are not hurting anyone, you can behave as you like. That's what's so great about America and Democracy. Some people feel the need to interact with many and some don't. I am one of those. I like to interact with a few people and friends once in a while; especially my family. But I need solitude and tranquility. I'm an introvert myself; a characteristics know of intellectuals. Just be yourself and know that there are 6 or 7 billion people that you can become friends with. All you gotta do is smile and start a conversation - it's that easy.

... and everything else he said is me in another life! :P

I am terrible in a social environment, I start to do just about what everyone else said here in this thread more or less. Lately I noticed I started to jumble my letters in writing while in class. I cought myself one day writing an upside down A... every so often I won't and the end product (piece of paper) looks like a bunch of hieroglyphs. (sometimes not an exageration)

Though now I realized that I do NOT like mingling in a social gatherings where your in close proximity to another physical being. People are stupid, not to say I'm smarter then them, I am part of the 'People', since obviously they can hang in those situations and I can't. (more or less)

I rarely peep a word outside of my computer and my immediate family, but on the net, you can actualy get time to think what you want to say before spewing your guts and making yourself look like a fool/bafoon/etc. And spending the rest of your day/life replaying how stupid you acted in that situation and what you did wrong and how people must have perceived you. Or maybe I did that right now and people must think I'm stupid for writing this piece. :P

I guess what I am trying to say is, if you spend your life thinking about what other people, who look skin deep in others, think of your actions, you'll lose out on the joy(s) of life: not having kids; running Linux; and not-- having-- kids.

It's not easy to do what I wrote in the above semi-paragraph.. hell, I haven't reached one of two of those goals, which is to blow certain people off if need be, but I'm getting there.

I believe in the whole the strongest survive, so I must be the wounded mackeral striving for water while a million seagals just happened to travel across the world to eat me to sustain the notion OF the strongest survive. And no I do not require sympathy(religion; a friend to hang on; *insert here*) like the woman (that I know) who watch Lifetime/Oxygen, and watch every re-packaged movie on someone getting raped, beat, raped, and/or murdered after being raped and beat. Your gonna die anyways, and I have faith that when you(I) die, that you(I) won't care about even caring for I will be nothing-ness, which is GREAT. So instead of worring about what others think of you, take this advice: If one does not like how you act or think, then they are not someone you would like to be your friend friend.

Get ahead of game and make the bills^10^10. Trying to be the cool person only leads to where most every jerk goes.

If any errors were found in any paragraphs let your brain auto-fix the mistakes. If any inconsistencies were found, and you would like to be a smart ass about it, well, eat sh*t and die.

now...

roflcopter

I guess I am one of the lucky ones. My wife and I are very different. She loves large crowds and going out while I am perfectly content with just staying at home reading. I do go out and when I do I can find someone to socialize with. However when it comes to going to bars I just don't care for it. The price of beer at a store is better than the bars. Half the time you have to yell over everyone else. An getting drunk on purpose, well I can just ram my head into a wall several times for the same effect. All that will cost me is a couple of brain cells, some spackle, and spackle applier. But my wife lets me be who I am and we are happy and content together. It is not often you find a someone you can talk to about computers and they will actually listen.

I'm a really nice guy, friendly, helpfull, lotta laughs. Women like my humor and personallity. But won't go out with me (unless I have a lot of money to spend on them!).

Their loss; not mine. 'Cuz surely I'm not ugly or nuthin' like that.