Why did you abandon the mainstream?

[randomness]

(a placeholder for a more substantive post)

In many ways I was never accepted by the mainstream. By virtue of the combination of my race and upbringing, I was always going to be the "other". So in contrast to many of my friends, who appear to have consciously chose the subculture, I ended up here because integrating into the mainstream was problematic.

And there are many mainstream assumptions which I think are completely fucked-up. That tends to reinforce my decision. Not that the particular social niche I find myself in is lacking in fucked-up assumptions, but perhaps there aren't as many, or at least there are fewer which impact me directly.

I'm still thinking about this.

Comments

[quietann.livejournal.com]

I'm another one who can "pass" at least for a while. A lot of my problems in grad school and in my first post-PhD job (assistant professor) came up because over any period of time, I can't hide that I'm "weird." Moving in the direction of tech (I am a biostatistician) was a good choice, because it's a geeky enough profession that people expect me to be a bit strange. By the terms of my current crowd, which is essentially the same as r_ness's I am probably a bit too "normal."

But in elementary school, yes, I got picked on. Some of it was my own social and emotional immaturity, and being small and clumsy, combined with a scary intellect. I don't have Aspergers, but as a kid I had a certain rigidity in how I'd play and with whom. Or I'd get really obsessed with something (horses!) and not want to do/talk about anything else. Middle school was hell, but for high school I went to a math/science/computers magnet, which was *much* easier.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

By the terms of my current crowd, which is essentially the same as r_ness's

While we do have a lot of overlap in one crowd, I think a number of crowds that I'm in have significant differences in assumptions.

(Just an observation; not meant to refute anything you're saying.)