An End is Coming to My Favorite Class

Just recently I actually watched Hannah Gadsby’s “Nanette” again. It really got me into thinking, how much are we really affected by the people we are surrounded with. I heard a quote from a motivational speaker soon after watching “Nanette” for the second time. Jim Rohn said, “We are the average of the five people we spend the most time with.” I found that very interesting. 

            When I heard that quote it reminded me of when Gadsby was talking about how 70% of her town was homophobic. Then she goes onto say that she herself has homophobic thoughts and grew up hating herself. So back to the original question, how much are we really affected by the people around us? 

            Growing up I always judged people by the people they hung out with. If they hung out with a group that I didn’t really like, I automatically assumed they were a bad person. But was that really true? I feel like a lot of people judge people based on their group of friends. Maybe that’s why I felt like I wasn’t going to fit into this class. I knew many of you were going to be very kind people. However, I also know that being an athlete can give you the jock look. Maybe I was afraid because I was friends with other athletes, some who act like jocks and some who are the nicest people you’ll ever meet. 

            I would say that we do become like the people we hang out with. Only because when you hang out with people a lot, you find yourself doing things they do and saying things they do. A good example from my life would be, when I went to South Carolina with some teammates to watch the baseball game. A lot of them would say, “oh a-a-a-aright” (yes, it’s supposed to be like that without the L). I noticed when I got back from the trip, I was saying that all the time. 

            I would also say a lot of people judge people based on who they hang out with. For example, in high school the popular kids hung out together, the so-called weird people hung out together, and the athletes hung out together. Why were we afraid to interject into another group? I can tell you that I never hung out with the popular kids because I wasn’t interested in being rejected. 

            Maybe people are pushed more by rejection than they are the people they hang out with. Maybe we let people form us into something we weren’t before, because we don’t want our own group to reject us. Maybe Gadsby became homophobic, because she wanted to fit in with the people in her community. Her community was filled with people who loved the not gay version of her, maybe she became that for them and then couldn’t change her thought process after that. 

            One thing is for sure, there’s no way to tell if someone is that way to fit in, or if the people around them are really affecting who they are as a person. All I know is that I’m so happy that even though I came into this class with the fear of fitting in, you all accepted me and everyone else with an open heart. I LOVE you girls so much, thank you for everything!