Fitting in, what is it exactly? Is it trying to be like your friends? Is it following every single thing they say for you to do or say? Or is it just following trends that everyone else does? The truth is, I did all these things when I was younger and I learned that fitting in can be good and it can be bad because it’s cool at first but if you let the fitting in factor rule over you, it can be met with complications afterwards. Here are a few things that I did to fit in when I was younger:
Wearing clothes my brother and/or my friends would wear:
This one was a bit strange because my friends from my childhood always had the newest shoes and whenever they had new shoes I had to get new shoes or else I would be considered a failure and I was trying to make myself feel better in the process because I now had what my friends had. Whenever I saw them with Gap clothing or Old Navy Clothing I kind of thought about buying into that whole idea of wearing what was in but it didn’t suit me at the time so I stuck with my Dragon Ball shirts and my Anchor Blue Pants. Speaking of Anchor Blue, I remember when my brother first showed off his anchor blue pants and I too wanted to buy some so I begged my brother that we go to Sunnyvale Mall and buy some for me. Of course, he obliged because he now had a job that paid him decent money and I looked at him with joy as he bought me my blue ‘baggy’ jeans and I felt so cool afterwards. I also tried going for the ”ranchero’ look when I was younger but I knew looking at myself in the mirror that the cowboy hat and boots was not my look because I was so integrated into American culture that I couldn’t buy wearing something that wasn’t me but now one day I wish I could do it again.
Being good at Arcades:
Ah, how I miss these days good times in my opinion because not only did me and my friend Adrian spend countless fridays and saturdays at the arcades but we also tried our best to fit with the rest of the crowd by playing the games with tickets and the fighting games. I remember when we used to play the 4th Mortal Kombat and my friend would tell me a move to do with Johnny Cage and I would hesitate because I didn’t know whether or not it was the best strategy at the time to use the shadow kick or the fireballs but I obliged, which was either hit or miss depending on the situation. I also have a memory of when we used to play the awesome, yet difficult House of Dead 2 and we would always end up dying yet since we saw people attempting to pass it we vowed one day to pass it but we never got the chance because we just ran out of tokens. The most fond memory I have though is when I played Tekken and some Asian Guy played up right next to me and played me and I remember how Adrian would egg me on to use Eddy’s moves on this guy and I would always try to use the same sequence of moves because I wasn’t a good player back then but somehow I ended up beating the guy due to sheer luck.
Jumping on the Attitude Era Bandwagon:
The late 90’s of wrestling was and is one of the greatest eras in wrestling because it was filled with vulgar language, deep storylines with swerves at the end, partial nudity, characters with shades of gray, non-clean finishes, and evil bosses. Yes, this is when I truly became a mark for wrestling, however I’d watched it before this and I noticed a real difference in how it was when Bret Hart shoved Vince Mcmahon on the canvas and screamed “Frustrated isn’t a goddamn word for it” “This is Bullshit”. I was in awe simply because my beloved hero Bret Hart was shoving announcers for a loss he didn’t deserve. Well, from then on we got racist storylines, middle fingers, crotch chops, sexist jokes, sensual women, and once again cheesy yet effective storylines. I remember when me and my friends would wrestle each other in the pool and do moves on each other because at the time wrestling was essentially the thing to watch on monday nights. That’s all people talked about and whenever we had the chance we would also wrestle in a small grass area near our house because like always it was the cool thing to do. I noticed a small change in my behavior from being very polite to very vulgar in my language and hence also in the way that I looked at women. I began to say phrases like “suck it” raising middle fingers, and doing crotch chops because everyone else was doing it but looking back on it now it was immature and I now feel that wrestling was made to entertain and tell complex stories. I started feeling attracted to girls around this age and at times I imagined what it would be like if I kissed one which is something that I saw in wrestling because WWE diva Sable was amazingly gorgeous for any 10 year old at that time. Anyway, long story short, my behavior was somewhat changed by wrestling in those days but we all grow up and learn to appreciate the true world of professional wrestling.
Vehicles of transportation:
This one is brief, yet important. My friends started getting into skateboarding around the age of 12 or so and I felt I needed to get a skateboard so I asked my dad if I could buy one and he got me one but it ended being a really crappy skateboard because the wheels were kind of loose. I thanked my dad for buying it and I never used it again because I felt embarrassed that I even tried to ride, much less tell my friends hey I have one too. I also recall my brother buying his first ca from his friend’s uncle and I felt so cool at that time because I could finally say that my brother had a car that he could pass his family around in. I fit in with my friends finally after all those years of asking for rides and what not and I felt proud.
Playing sports:
My friends were always big soccer fans and sometimes a group of us would get together and play at Vargas Elementary School where we would hold mini tournaments between teams of three all of which had three players each. I remember I didn’t like it that much because I wasn’t very good at it but once I got the hang of it I loved it because for my age I ran pretty fast and I was agile. The fondest memory I have of playing soccer was when my brother’s friend, Victor(who’s genuinely a nice guy), was playing against my brother and they were racing against each other and my brother barely juked him but Victor got really upset after that because he knew he should of outrun him and I could tell after that he got “blown up in a sense”. I also remember when my brother’s friends went to play soccer at the same school and yet my brother didn’t show up but I decided to go anyway and I didn’t regret it because after all I was trying to fit in with the rest of the guys because I didn’t want to be perceived as just “Jesus’s brother” but rather as Meno, someone who has guts and glory.Fitting In, it works if you use it the the right way.
Well, it’s pretty late gonna get some sleep and hope tomorrow brings more memories and more adventures! Till next time
Just Another Day... 