advice needed?  

Chatterbox: Down to Earth

advice needed?  

advice needed?            

my math class got a new seating chart for this semester and i'm sitting next to this guy i went out to elementary school with but never talked to, and haven't at all interacted with in middle school either. that's not the problem but i need to give background info so keep that in mind- in my school, there are a couple people that aren't friends with a lot of people at school and are i guess stereotypically "weird" (not that i consider that a bad thing at all! these people are honestly pretty cool) but a lot of times more "popular" people will talk to them in an almost mocking way? like they'll ask their opinion on completely random things or try to get them involved in joke arguments and it's hard to describe but it's a pretty common form of mocking in my school and people just find it funny because the person's completely oblivious. so back to the guy in my math class. i always thought he was a pretty quiet person but apparently i was wrong and now he's acting like i mentioned people did before, asking what i think about random stuff and pretending that we're good friends even though we really aren't; i don't even know him, and today he said something like "you're crazy for taking notes" in class. which that alone wouldn't bother me, it's just the combination of everything, that i feel like i'm being mocked but don't know how to respond or react, and i also didn't think anyone at school really had an opinion on me because i mostly try to stick to the background, but if this guy and potentially his friends think i'm weird (once again, in general i don't think being weird is a bad thing, but some people do) that could mean that more people do too. i just don't really know what to do, since i don't have a whole lot of experience with this kind of situation. maybe i'm just reading into things too much. sorry for the long post, admins.

submitted by fallen leaf , greendale
(January 25, 2024 - 5:40 pm)

back to the Down to Earth

oh dear, that sounds terrible. Maybe you could just ask them straight out if they're being mocking on purpose, and if they don't apologize for making you feel bad and/or seem in any way like they're being inconsiderate, just ignore them, I guess. on the other hand, if they're just doing some good-natured teasing or something, that would be a different matter. but yeah, I would definitely confront them about it. if you don't want to do that, though, it's totally okay to ignore them, like I said.

hope this helps! and if you do confront them and need help in trying to figure out their reactions, just ask me and I'll go over it with you :)

submitted by Poinsettia
(January 25, 2024 - 10:07 pm)

thank you for the advice- i'm probably going to try to ignore them, like you said (i'm worried i'll mess it up if i try to confront them). thanks for responding though- i was a little worried that it would end up being a lot of responses saying i'm reading into it too much :]

submitted by fallen leaf, greendale
(January 26, 2024 - 7:51 am)

Whoops I forgot to respond to this -

People talk to me like this at school too. Mostly just me. A couple of other kids, maybe. Guess I'm the weird one :/

I don't really have any advice but if you ignore them sometimes they get bored and give up. He may just be trying to be friendly but if it turns out he's not I'd just ignore him. 

Also: what are you worried about? If other people think you're weird, it kind of sucks for them but not really for you, as long as you're not having trouble making friends.

I gotta go, or I'd talk more, sorry 

 

submitted by Periwinkle, age Pi, Somewhere in the stars
(January 26, 2024 - 7:55 am)

aw, i'm so sorry, fallen leaf! that really sucks. *hugs if you want them*

i've experienced a lot of similar situations, and i don't have a ton of advice for dealing with them, unfortunately. Poinsettia and Peri gave good advice; i've found that ignoring them is generally the best tactic. 

i think that this guy is probably just trying to get some sort of reaction out of you - maybe he's bored, maybe he just doesn't know how to interact with you like a decent person. i doubt he actually thinks badly of you - seriously? he's commenting on how you're taking notes? like, why is that something that you should be made fun of for?? you seem like you do well in school, or at least do better than him because i don't see him taking notes, so maybe he's just upset about that and feeling badly about himself, and now he's taking it out on you? 

i don't know, i've never been that good at analyzing other people, but that's just what it seems like to me.

confronting him is always an option, but i can see how you might be hesitant to do that. i would just ignore him, honestly. if the situation doesn't get better, then maybe you could confront him or ask your teacher if you could move seats?

yeah, being "weird" in itself isn't a bad thing, but it really sucks when people bother you about not being whatever they see as normal :/

well, good luck, fallen leaf! i hope this situation gets better soon, and if you need anymore advice, i'll try my best lol :]

submitted by pangolin, age she/they, Outskirts of the Galaxy
(January 26, 2024 - 1:00 pm)