There is this TikTok video going around whose main message is “Say the weird thing” and I could not have agreed with more.
See, throughout my four humble years in high school, I have been known to spew whatever is on my mind, damn the social setting. The consequences may vary, but one thing I was able to learn is that “saying the weird thing” has only made my high school experience better, rather than worse.
In my freshman year, my attempts at socializing and trying to meet new people were halted due to COVID-19’s attempt to castrate any sense of normalcy in the world. Due to that ailment, I decided that in order to make any sort of lasting impression on the people around me, I had to make my statements and actions loud and full of grandeur.
Thinking back on it now, I will admit that some of the things I did were cringey and abrasive, but it certainly made for great memories to reminisce on with the friends I made that year.
Sophomore year was when we were able to see people in their full glory and the year I decided to take my first impressions up a level. I got more crude, grating and primal, all in an attempt to hammer down a lasting impression on my peers. As I reflect, a perfect memory of how I would like to think I imprinted on my classmates was when, on the last day of school, I slipped on an invisible object in C-Hall and flattened like a pancake on the floor for all the history teachers to see.
Realizing that I went too primal my sophomore year, I decided I needed to tone it down for junior year. Sure, I would still say some obscene stuff, but the physicality of that left. Junior year is when I think I fully tapped into the “saying the weird thing” motto. I became more confident that year and began to realize that I really didn’t care for my image any more. As long as I continued making lasting memories for the people around me, I felt like what I was doing was okay.
Senior year, I mellowed out even more due to the fact that it was my last year and I was probably never going to see some of these people again. People thought what they thought of me, and nothing at this point was going to change that, even if I really did not want people thinking that about me.
Saying the weird thing has more pros than cons, in my opinion. I feel like the memories I made with friends and classmates were only enhanced by the weird things I said, and it made people get to know me on a personal level, willingly or unwillingly.
Society as a whole has a problem of covering up or shunning the weird or the unusual in conversation. But I, for one, feel like we should embrace saying the weird thing.
